


Normal Ⅱ

by 100yardstare



Category: Madagascar (Movies), Penguins of Madagascar
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Established Relationship, F/M, Humor, Interspecies Relationship(s), Mild Language, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:34:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25752184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/100yardstare/pseuds/100yardstare
Summary: Life as the assistant to the world-renowned Dr. Octavius Brine is harder than it looks when you're lying to millions of humans that he's actually a fellow human being, and not an octopus named Dave. Now that his plans for revenge are kaput, there's still North Wind to worry about, and a reputation to uphold. Lo and behold! More crazy adventures await with Dave and I as we take on the world, and I continue to try and keep my sanity.✧Sequel to "Normal"
Relationships: Dave | Dr. Octavius Brine/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 21





	1. Plan of Action

"Sophie, turn her on! I don't want to miss the commercial!"

My eyes shot open as Dave arrived into the room, the loud clank of the doors and his excruciating pun meeting my ears in unison like the collision of a train wreck. I slowly found myself turning my head around to look over at him as he skedaddled into the room, meeting with his henchmen at the large computer monitor there in the lab room with me. To think I was literally just beginning to maintain my concentration on my job before this. Alas! Octo Corp may not have a current penguin problem to deal with, but it continued to have it's own disruptions, anyway.

Dave's larger than life cooked-toothed smile immediately intensified upon his expression the instant the monitor was switched on. The henchmen quickly brought up a live channel that was just about ending a commercial prior to the one Dave was so happy about.

"Kailey, get over here quick, you've got to see this!" Dave yelled, his tentacles bending into knots as he tried to contain himself.

I let loose a big sigh, for a moment contemplating the large stack of papers on the desk from our previous pledge drives from over the summer, which had yet to be filed into the bank, and stood up limply. The second I had walked over and arrived next to Dave, he grabbed hold of me, hugging me so tightly that it felt like the air in my lungs launched from my mouth like the puff of a rocket ship. I could barely tell that the commercial he had been gloating about sprang up on the screen. I had to take a moment to adjust as the henchmen in the room settled around us to take part in the viewing.

The sound of heavy metal music took over the monitor's speakers, for a moment my brain trying to process that it was actually a metal version of the _Safety Dance_ as flashing images of Dave as Dr. Octavius Brine and his building, Octo Corp, hit the screen. For some reason he was holding a giant hammer as he finally made a speaking appearance in the commercial, reminding me of one of those cringey lawyer skits I saw on TV all the time.

"I carry a big hammer because I'm Science Strong! Here at Octo Corp, we care about you and your insignificant lives! Whether it is your desire to help poor penguins or your right to eat at BJ's Burgers, I Dr. Octavius Brine, am here!"

The camera switched to a low angle looking up at him, showing a small foot-tall wolf statue that weirdly enough happened to look like Classified as Dave proceeded to swing the hammer and pulverize the shit out of it, the sound of it breaking clashing harshly with the chaotic music cover in the background.

The camera shot back to Dave again, this time as a close up.

"Yes! I AM HERE! Fighting the good fight and being awesome, because that's who I am! Give me money!"

The screen transitioned one more time, this time to a shot of the Octo Corp building specifically, with Dave in front of it with abnormally outstretched arms to showcase it. His gesture of choice happened to be another dead giveaway that he wasn't a _freaking person_. Next, his name and company logo zoomed onto the screen like a reversed Star Wars introduction title. After the logo appeared, beneath it in smaller letters phased into existence, creating a sentence, as an overlay of Dave's voice filtered softly thought the speakers, reading it aloud: "Octo Corp: Genetic research and science that _means_ something."

That was it. The commercial ended, causing all the henchmen to blast into a series of cheerful gobbles as Dave himself continued with his larger than life grin and spun me around, lifting me in the air as he did so.

"Oh, what a success!" Dave almost seemed to sing as he continued with his celebration for a few seconds longer, the room still spinning even after putting me down. "Kailey! Kailey, dearest! Tell me, what did you think?!"

"It's great…" I said through clenched teeth, trying very hard to be happy for him, but the fact that it was so obviously a giveaway that something was very much wrong with him seemed to get the better of me. "But… Dave… what does it _mean_?"

"What do you mean, 'what does it mean'?" Dave's smile diminished by only a smidgen, but that didn't make it any less bright and overwhelming.

"Like, what exactly are we doing?" I asked. "The commercial said Octo Corp is doing 'science that means something', so what does that mean?"

"Absolutely nothing!" Dave cheerfully responded. "North Wind confiscated my Medusa Serum the last time they kidnapped me, remember? So it's not like I can study on that more even if I wanted to."

"So, you're telling me, you expect people to give you money… for doing nothing?" I felt my forehead wrinkle up a tad as I furrowed my brows, my mind attempting to dive deep into Dave's logic.

"Yes, exactly, dearest!"

"That's horrible, Dave!" My arms flung into the air as I tried to emphasize my sentence, but this did absolutely nothing to sheathe the ecstatic gobbles around me and Dave's excited, cheerful domineer.

"Oh, Kailey, what are you so worried about? Hundreds—thousands of companies do this all the time anyway and people don't notice! I'm just chiming in for my slice of the cake," Dave said, finally letting me go completely then to give me room to catch my breath from his overwhelming hugs and embraces. "Besides, we need to keep money coming in. North Wind still very much wants to arrest me, so we have to stay on our toes."

"Stealing millions of dollars. That sounds like a great idea Dave!" I said sarcastically. "Next thing I know you're going to be telling me that you haven't been paying taxes or some crap."

"What's taxes?"

I facepalmed. I should have known better. "Good Lord Dave, if North Wind doesn't arrest you then I'm absolutely certain that the people will." For a moment I thought about working to help him set up Octo Corp as a non-profit, but the mere idea of doing that made me feel horrible. Alas, if it meant helping Dave I guess that was the best thing I could personally do for him to keep up this act. "Can I get back to work now?" I asked.

"Not quite yet," Dave said. "I have some news I want to fill you in on. As you know, the New York City Macy's Parade is in just a few days… I was going to make an appearance on my official float to give the fans something more tangible than just a commercial."

" _Why?_ " I felt the question slip from the back of my mouth uncontrollably. "You might as well draw a target on Brine's gourd ass head if you desperately want North Wind to see you causing more problems."

"What are they going to do about it?" Dave smirked mischievously. "It's not like they are going to attack and abduct me in front of all the humans. If anything, being in public is way safer than being cooped up in this building.

"I guess," I sighed. "Has the parade float already been transferred to the holding facility?"

"Indeed it has!" Dave assured me. "Ah…see, on our toes, aren't we? I couldn't have asked for a better lovely assistant and partner, now could I?" He lifted up a tentacle to place on my shoulder, snapping another grin my direction, his expression, however, mirroring less of his giddy excited self and instead more of the kind that I could only describe like dude would shoot at you if he was trying to act cool in preparation to tell you shitty one-liners.

"Dave, stop trying to act like a chad," I said, smiling softly, honestly a tad amused by his behavior.

"Chad? What's a chad?" He paused for a moment, his red eyes suddenly dilating as he remembered something, turning around within seconds as the recollection must've settled. "Which reminds me! Chad! Kroger—have you checked the front for the Kroger delivery?!"

"It's _Kroeger_ ," I corrected.

"What?" Dave asked aloud towards me, confused.

We stood there awkwardly for a second, my mind screaming at me again in my useless attempts at trying to connect Dave's unwitting usage of celebrity names to his punny statements in an effort to teach him.

"Dammit, never mind," I sighed.

A gobble from a henchman, obviously Chad, answered him from the other side of the room then, saluted as a response, and scurried out of the lab to do as Dave had asked. For a moment I had to consider how lucky we were that groceries could be delivered. Can you imagine Dave trying to go grocery shopping? Please. Not to mention the embarrassment of him trying to get a poor retail worker to load up a crapload of fish, cheese, and clams into that new McLaren he won back in Vegas.

"All right Dave, just… let me know if you need me for anything else," I said, waving my hand in a sort of 'shoo' manner to signal I was ready to get back to that stack of paper that was eating at my consciousness. However, that was when Dave decided to twirl back around, halting me in my attempt to step away by blocking my path.

"What's the rush?" Dave cooed, almost in a pout, but that shifted quickly again in to that _thing_ he had been doing lately—that half-smile, half-smirk thing. The one that made me feel butterflies in my stomach. "What could be more important than being together…?"

"Dave, what I'm doing is important, "I tried to explain, but I could tell this wasn't working in terms of convincing him, to which I immediately continued my train of thought and formed them into comprehensible words I thought he'd understand. "I mean—of course it's not as important as hanging out, but still… _important_. This work; these stack of papers can literally mean life or death for us."

"I got a few henchmen who are good at that accounting stuff, don't worry!" Dave tried to suggest.

"And they're swamped too, Dave. There are tons of these stacks in my office, so that's why I'm working down here. The henchmen haven't even gotten through half of it yet." I stopped myself for a moment, taking in a deep breath to let loose a sigh, trying to calm myself down. Thinking about everything I wanted to do and get out of the way was overwhelming, and certainly was testing my patience. "We have money still coming in from those monthly pledges, but this is going to help bring in what we need to continue rebuilding and prepping for any future North Wind attack."

"You're starting to sound like me," Dave said, his tone changing after my explanation to one that seemed to match my own, but not necessarily the same in reasoning. "They're consistent pests, always after us. And it's because of me."

"Hey, don't go turning into a grump on me," I said, taking a moment to pat his head. "We can acknowledge that we are very much being tracked by a weird ass inter-species organization, but that doesn't mean we can't still strive onward, right?"

"That's so true, dearest!" Dave suddenly ripped from his brief moment of bitterness and instantly back into his chipper attitude, his ability to not completely understand personal space being tested again as he drew in close to me with a smile. "As a matter-of-fact, I have something we need to attend to right now! We should go and make sure the float is ready to go at the parade holding facility, and while we're there I can show you all the details of the float itself and my plans for our portion of the parade. I'll go change into my disguise and we'll be off!"

"Of course," I said through gritted teeth. My idea of productivity still lay on the stack of papers that seemed to be screaming my name at that point, but I justified the time with Dave anyway.

Seemed I always did.

. . . . . . .

"Ah, there she is," Dave said, looking upon his custom parade float with a prideful smirk as he took in a big breath of air. "A beaut, isn't it, dearest?"

I looked at the float, one of my eyes actually twitching as I gazed upon the mess that was in front of me. Not that it was necessarily bad from an artistic standpoint, but more so that it was absolutely, 100% octopus themed. Again. Like, can Dave ever coordinate something that wasn't an obvious giveaway that he was a giant, sentient purple octopus? Worst case scenario was that people probably thought he just really liked octopuses, but this was insane, even six months in entirety being with him. Dave might as well run around with a sign that says 'I'M A PERSON' and all the idiot people in the world would probably agree and cry about it like they always did.

Yes, perfect, wonderful, totally normal Dr. Octavius Brine, the human being.

"It's wonderful, Dave," I finally responded, trying desperately to keep my response as steady and contained as possible. "I see you even used purple… again."

"It's your favorite color too, right?" Dave said. "I knew you'd like it!" He grabbed my hand then, quite suddenly, and pelted off with me up towards the float, finding a stepping stool and set of stairs that took us up onto the top of it. Here, under a large sprawl of large purple tentacles that resembled that of something like a horrible Iron Throne, only with you know, tentacles, we stood there for a moment.

Looking down at the handiwork and artistic depictions of underwater clams, fish, and of course, octopuses, Dave said, "So here's how it's going to go down…" He put an arm around my shoulder, then using his other hand to showcase outward, as if he was beginning a 'picture this' sort of montage. "We'll be towards the front of the parade, just behind the hideous Baby Shark float, but right in front of the National Geographic float. I've hired some human dancers to help with our procession, so they have a skit to show for the news stations to air. After that, I will show off my moves, make a brief announcement, again for the news stations." He paused for a moment, thinking to himself as he further pondered the float around us, and then looked down at me. "And you'll be up here with me!"

"Yeah, totally," I said. "As long as you're not going to make we wear something stupid again like a sparkly red dress or something."

"Oh no, the parade won't call for anything like that," Dave said. "We'll just be our good ol selves. Well, you will, I'll be the doctor, of course."

"Of course," I said, cringing again.

"Oh, Dr. Brine!" The sound of a woman's voice suddenly called out to him somewhere in the large holding garage, filtering through and bouncing off the other floats that were currently collected here as both Dave and I instantly looked around to see who had called. It wouldn't take very long for us to finally notice a professionally dressed woman trot up to our float, her heels clicking against the tiled floors and filling the room with their echoes. "Dr. Brine, I can't believe the coincidence! Would you mind if I spoke to you and your lovely fiancée for a moment?"

From up where we were I couldn't really tell who she was. I found I was squinting to try and figure out if I had seen her before when Dave took my arm gently and began to escort me back down the little staircase, off the float, and back to the ground once again. It was there that the lady had met us, her close presence finally setting off a trigger of familiarity; although one I hadn't met in person. She was exceptionally pretty, reminding me of someone that would probably make appearances on talk shows or something.

"I'm sure you know of my show segment on NYC Life and Action. Channel 2 News?" Her words created a pause as both Dave and I tried burrowing ourselves into our memories, attempting to connect the dots. It was then that I had remembered seeing billboards of her around New York advertising her show, and commercials I had seen of her advertising her own beauty products.

"Oh yeah, Rayonna Desiree, right?" I finally acknowledged.

"Yes, that's me," she said casually, smiling in a way that accentuated her facial features, perhaps an out-of-habit type that she had been using for years for her career. "It's finally nice to meet both of you in-person. It's not often a journalist has this kind of opportunity. Are you putting your float in the Macy's Parade?"

"We are," Dave responded. "Just here to make sure everything is in order."

"Great!" Rayonna said happily. "In that case, I wanted to ask: did you two have any plans after the parade? I would absolutely love to interview you guys and do a report on you for my segment."

"Ummm." I felt like agreeing to this was a terrible idea, much less something I wanted to do, but Dave immediately jumped at the opportunity.

"We'll do it. It would be great for my publicity," Dave confirmed, though slowly I watched as he began to shift into acting mode, bringing on the fake tears and everything. "See, after that horrible terrorist attack we—we lost everything!" He paused for a moment to fake choke up, trembling his lips and everything. "After what they did to my beautiful fiancée…"

"Oh, Dr. Brine, you know I am so sorry about what happened! This interview would definitely be a mutual and beneficial meeting, as I can talk about your new research efforts and need for funds for millions to see."

"That would be great, Ms. Desiree," Dave said, continuing his act.

"Lovely! I'll see you two after the parade then? I'll look for you guys where the floats let up."

"Thank you," Dave said. Rayonna gave us a wave, turned around, and started out of the large holding area. Before long, the sound of her heels clicking on the floor ceased the moment the sound of her opening the facility's doors and close behind her, leaving Dave and I alone together in silence briefly before I shot a glare at Dave.

"What are we going to tell her, huh?" I asked, putting my arms around my chest in a defensive manner as I quizzed him. "What freaking research are we going to talk about, hmmm?"

"I'll figure something out…" Dave said, placing a hand to his 'chin' in thought. "Can't talk about the Medusa Serum at all…."

"You think!?" I huffed irritably. "Whatever lie you're going to come up with next you better think of an elaborate research study, with actual _evidence_ to back it up before this thing happens."

"Do you not believe in me then?" Dave asked, smirking. "I'm the master of coming up with plans, you know. You should already know this."

"I do, but—"

"Then don't worry! I've got everything under control, dearest! We've got this in the bag."

I honest to God hoped he was right. Even though I've seen him pull through plenty of times before, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread whenever Dave took another 'leap of faith' so to speak. Every step we took forward with these acts of deceit was just another opportunity for things to go wrong. But honestly, that was just my negativity talking. I tried to constantly set myself straight, and be positive like Dave had been teaching me to do. I suppose it was a defense mechanism I had in order to not disappoint myself, and you know, to keep my sanity. 


	2. Casual Revelations

Occasionally my attention was broken by the sound of Dave's henchmen entering and leaving my office, each arrival and departure slowly but surely removing the stacks upon stacks of paper that filled the room like chipping stone with a pickaxe. It had finally gotten to the point where I could return to working at my desk, the many papers having been cleared enough to use my computer, and punch in all the financial information I could to be submitted to the banks. I thought myself lucky that Dave's henchmen were so smart, and helped me with freaking accounting stuff. I would find myself wondering if they'd even be more productive than actual people, and hilariously thought of what a world would look like with octopuses working in an everyday office with people like it was a normal thing.

I had to blink a few times to try and get myself focusing again. It was way too easy to get distracted, even by myself.

I found that instead of my eyes peering back down at the papers, my eyes glanced at the time on the bottom right of my computer screen. I had only been doing this for three hours since my last break, but it felt like an eternity. _I could use another break_ , I thought to myself. _Just a short one._

My hand reached for the mouse to my computer as I minimized the financial spreadsheet and brought up my blogs home site, scrolling through its contents mindlessly for a time as I began to scan over the many different discourse threads, pictures, and entertainment highlights that others had dropped onto the feed.

 _'Penguins situated back in zoos. Homecoming celebration_ ,' one had read, below the headline an image of penguins happily swimming and playing in their exhibits. My mind seemed to shoot back in time to recall all the times I had helped Dave to kidnap penguins in his second attempt at exacting revenge on them. He had told me the story about _why_ he did what he had done, but for the life of me I never really understood how it could have happened in the first place. I wasn't a zookeeper, and didn't know anyone who was a zookeeper, so it's not like I knew of the intricacies of picking and choosing what animals get exhibited or not. What made people like penguins more than… octopuses, anyway? Yes they were cute, but was that all?

I continued to scroll then, seemingly attempting to bury those thoughts, and moved to the next story below. It was an ad for Rayonna's beauty products, ironically. There were a lot of pictures of flawless skinned girls, and below that a video that started to play the actual commercial. I had it muted, but watching as they started pretending to put this makeup on their already smooth skin made me roll my eyes.

I proceeded to scroll past that one, too. 

I did this for long while, forgetting that I had set out to help with the pledge drive funds on the desk in front of me. It had even gotten to the point where the coming and going of the henchmen didn't even break me from my focus on the computer screen, my eyes catching every image and every cluster of words with each stride of the mouse. I felt like at that point I was just browsing to browse, seeing but not really absorbing what was crossing my dash, when suddenly, I found my eyes widening as a new image briefly came into view. I had mindlessly scrolled passed it, catching myself however, and scrolled back up.

It was images of Dr. Octavius Brine.

In these photos there were crude edits of red circles around certain parts of Dave's body in his disguise, ranging from his head, his fake ass red wig, his thin legs—everything. I was starting to wonder why the hell someone would post this, pointing out some of Dave's weird traits, when I came to the text portion of the post. I felt like my eyes couldn't get any bigger at that moment as I began to read, a sense of dread flowing through me that felt like my own circulatory system was about to strangle me.

 _"Dr. Octavius Brine is and OCTOPUS!"_ I cried out loud, reading the first sentence of the post as if I was reading out loud a death omen. A couple of the henchmen that were in the room with me paused, their tentacles wrapped around the stacks of paper as they looked at me. Silence seemed to overtake the room then, but it was quite the opposite in comparison to the absolute batshit chaos that my mind was going through then and there.

I continued to read the post in excruciating silence: _'Dr. Octavius Brine is actually an octopus! Here you can see his long thin legs, and big abnormally shaped head. I have seen him with my own eyes, and I speak the truth! You all have been told lies!'_

"Holy shit!" I screamed, sitting up from my chair so abruptly that it fell over the instant I made it to my feet. I literally jumped over the table then, ran out the door, then pelted down the hallway so fast that I felt like I could outrun even freaking Classified. My heart was racing so hard that my vision became somewhat scurried, making me feel like I was in a dazed dream or something. Reality definitely wasn't comprehensible as I made that hard run down the halls of Octo Corp and down the stairwell, justifying that the elevator literally could not be faster than my desire to reach Dave at that second.

I opened the stairwell door once I reached the bottom, sending a cascade of echoes into the building as I broke down another set of hallways, and finally into the lab room to see Dave standing there. "Oh, freaking SHIT!" I cried again, rushing up to Dave. He had turned around well before I had reached him, meeting me with a concerned expression.

"Kailey, what's wrong—" he began to ask, but I was already going off at that point.

"Dave, you've been freaking exposed! Somebody knows you're a damned octopus! Christ!"

"What? What makes you say that?" Dave asked.

I grabbed hold of one of his tentacles, wailing it around like a bitchy kid would do with their stuffed animal, and then proceeded to pull him with me towards the stairwell to take him up to show him what I had seen. "Hurry, you have to see! Good lord! Everything's been absolutely f—"

"Dearest, calm down!" Dave said then, managing to quell my chaotic outburst, and take his tentacle from my hand to place it gently on the side of my cheek. "You need to calm down first."

I felt like doing something as simple as calming down was so out of reach for me in those moments, but Dave being the calm one for once actually managed to bring me down a notch. I took a few big, deep breaths in order to regain some control of myself, and then began to talk again.

"Dave, you need to come up with me to my office now," I said. "Somebody has been posting about you. They know Dr. Octavius Brine is _you_. An octopus! As in _not a person_!"

"Hmm," Dave huffed, thinking to himself for a split second as he pondered my revelation. "Let me have a look."

"Hurry!" I yelled again, grabbed his tentacle again from my face, and then began power-walking with him back towards the stairwell, although he paused me again as I felt another one of his tentacles place itself on my shoulder, at first softly, and then a bit more sternly.

"Let's take the elevator, dearest, you still need a moment to relax," he suggested. I was starting to realize that my sprint had taken a good chunk out of my energy, so I obliged, allowing him this time to take control of our route, and followed him to the elevators instead. The second the elevator doors shut and we began to go up, I put my face in my hands, trying so hard not to let myself get out of control again. The climb up to my office floor was excruciating, to say the least. I had been tested of my patience for a long time now, but this seemed to be the test of tests.

The second the elevator let up, and the doors opened again, I felt my heart sink. I pulled my face from my palms and looked up at Dave, my eyes still widened like I was perpetually reliving the instant I saw the title to that post.

We exited and headed down the hallway. I went through the door first, letting a couple more henchmen pass me as I walked in, and then gestured towards my computer, giving Dave room to see it for himself.

As Dave scooted over to the computer, he pulled out his black-rimmed glasses, and placed them on his face, taking a moment then to look down at the computer and began scrolling over the images, and then after started to read the text. My hands were uncontrollably balling into fists as I waited for him to finish.

"Well, this is a first one for me," Dave muttered finally.

"What should we do!?" I gasped then, feeling as if the anticipation of our impending doom was well on its way.

"Nothing…" Dave shrugged. He started scrolling down the page a little more, his red eyes scanning over the comments section.

"How can we do nothing, you idiot!" I yelled, a bit meaner than usual. "This is literally you and your entire lie we're talking about! What if people start catching on?"

"They're not," Dave said, finally turning his head my way. "It's just one person that knows, it looks like, and nobody else is buying it."

"Huh!?" I huffed, my expression shifting as I attempted to wrap my mind around it. Looking at the comments myself, I started reading what some people were saying…

_"His head is perfectly fine! You're just mean!"_

_"I'll have you know that I heard from a friend, of a friend of a sister, through her grandma, from her granddaughter, that Octavius actually wears a wig—which mind you looks absolutely fine. You are being hateful, and quite frankly, petty, and should be ashamed of yourself."_

_"Some people have small legs, Karen! Get over yourself!"_

_"Unlike you, Dr. Brine actually contributes to society. Go kill yourself."_

I stood there in silence for a while as I read through nearly over a hundred comments to myself, over and over again seeing the same thing. I couldn't believe what I was actually seeing. I had to pause after all the reading and rub my eyes with the back of my hands, absolutely not comprehending that there was someone out there that _knew_ , but… nobody believed them.

Dave had been so patient with me the entire time that once I snapped out of my fit entirely I turned around to look at him, my gaze shifting to the floor, embarrassed.

"I don't understand…" I said meekly. It was so obvious to me that Dave was an octopus, after all, so it really was an enigma as to why nobody batted an eye at all of Dave's weird quirks. Even some of the things he's done in front of people before, like his weird dancing and stretches, seemed to be a dead giveaway of what he actually was, and yet, nobody thought different. What should very well have been a massive societal revelation just came out in the end as a casual utterance, ignored by the internet. Maybe it all reverted back to my experience of 'the veil of reality' being broken or something. I don't know. "I'm sorry I called you an idiot," I finally said.

"You don't need to apologize…" Dave said, smiling again, but in a soft, comforting way. "This is a bit odd, to say the least, but it's really nothing to worry about. I figured when I started this whole Brine getup that there'd be some speculation about me, but I've found the human masses aren't really that bright. There could be a giant conspiracy right under their noses and they'd laugh and say it's a fake! Ha! Like their precious Octavius Brine!" His soft smile had grown to a bigger one by now. He might have gotten over his revenge on the penguins but he sometimes still fit that evil genius scientist archetype without really trying.

"Hey, now that's pretty mean," I joked, "I'm a person too you know."

"You know you're different," Dave said. "Remember the snowglobe? The one you found me in? You saw me when that little girl—when nobody else did. Sometimes I wonder how my life would've been different if you would have found me years before that. When I was still in the zoos, being ignored…"

I thought somberly for a moment about Dave's past predicaments. I couldn't imagine how it felt to be ignored, and unwanted, but I did know how it felt to feel alone.

"But I did find you," I said, "and that's what matters, right?" I was getting sappy again, but I couldn't help it. My empathy for Dave had always been there, even the first day I met him, but now it was different, deeper, and more meaningful. I finally lifted my eyes completely from the floor to look up at him, my gaze having been diverting to and fro from him for the time after my outburst. He was still smiling, per the norm. A thought crossed my mind as to how somebody with such a sad past could have the biggest, happiest smile in the world. It was the kind of smile you craved to be around, the kind that would instantly brighten a room. Whatever was left of my negative feelings on what I had seen on that feed were instantly eclipsed from his confidence.

"You did…" Dave said, sighing afterwards.

Suddenly, we heard static from the speakers on the intercom, and then one of Dave's henchmen began to speak. I couldn't understand the oncoming series of gobbles, but Dave seemed to grow excited again from listening to what was being said.

"Oh, looks like dinner is ready!" Dave cheered. "Kevin cooks too, you know. I'm betting he finally served us all something up from that grocery delivery from the other day."

"Is it fish? And cheese?" I asked, amused.

"Yes…" Dave said, his eyes narrowing a bit as if he was joking—hiding the fact I had caught him on his crap again. "You'll join us, right? I had them make you salmon specifically. Kevin also made chocolate cake."

"Hell yeah! Of course I will!" I said excitedly. "How can I pass up a meal and another baking miracle from none other than Kevin?"

"I'm so glad!" Dave responded just as happily, if not more so. "Let's go! We don't want it to get cold."

. . . . . . .

The instant we arrived in the large dining hall the smell of food hit my nostrils. One may think that octopuses wouldn't make good chefs, but Kevin's cooking was oh so wonderful, so much so that I'm pretty sure if Gordon Ramsay tasted his dishes he'd say 'finally some good fucking food'.

A bunch of henchmen had gathered at that time, sitting along the tables, and bouncing up and down gleefully as some of the other henchmen worked as servers and placed plates with their dinner on top of it. I sat at the far end of the long table next to Dave, eagerly awaiting my plate. Just the thought of food right now made my stomach growl, and with all this talk about cake especially I felt like I couldn't wait another minute.

It seem, just in time, one of the henchmen arrived to me, setting my plate down to reveal a perfectly baked piece of salmon, just like Dave had foretold. The additional smell of lemon seasoning could be hinted at on top of everything else. Next to the salmon were a few symmetrically placed pieces of new potatoes divinely baked in garlic and olive oil. Looking up from my plate, it seemed like mine was the most unique dish of them all, the others happily about to devour whole ass bass and mackerel. Dave was being served this along with an assortment of cubed cheeses.

"My complements to Kevin," I said to the henchman who had served me my plate, giving him a thumbs up with a wink. The little octopus clapped happily, and rushed off out of the dining hall and through the large doors to the kitchen. I sat among the chattering of octopus gobbles and clanking of dishes for a few seconds before the same octopus came rushing back out, this time with Kevin, who was wearing a chef's hat on his head. The two rather quickly arrived next to me, the henchman from before standing back with two of his tentacles clasped together as Kevin looked like he was about to cry of utter happiness and started gobbling a bunch at me.

I sat there listening to him for a bit, his gurgles completely _not_ understandable to me as usual. I still kept a smile on my face even though I couldn't understand him, getting out of his long breath of words that he must have been happy that I had complemented his cooking. _Where is Edgar when you need him_ , I thought to myself, thinking about my translator who was probably off somewhere else in the building right now.

"No, thank _you_ , Kevin," I finally said after he finished, my mind filling in the blanks and generating a response I thought was right. "You are the talent here, after all."

That seemed to be exactly what Kevin needed to hear, because he actually started crying by then, proceeding to flail himself over my lap dramatically as he continued with his happy-tears. I patted his head, consoling him, "Oh, Kevin, you are too much, I swear! No need to be modest."

After a bit, Kevin finally sat up, wiped his eyes, and gave me a quick bow before rushing back off towards the kitchen. After his departure was about the time everyone else in the dining hall had gotten situated, sitting patiently at their seats as they all collectively looked down the long table and at Dave.

"You may eat now, gentlemen," Dave acknowledged. His cue instantly set the entire dining hall to begin their meal, surprisingly a giant table full of octopuses having wonderful manners, although not necessarily as practiced as I imagined. Some of the henchman dropped their forks occasionally, while some ended up full blown dismissing the usage of forks and knives to just grab hold of the fish whole and shove it under themselves in their mouths. I had to at least applaud their attempts.

"I see where you get your table manners from, Dave," I said, remembering back to the incident he had with me and my freaking parents at that Japanese restaurant.

"Hey, holding those human things, dinglehoppers—forks, chopsticks or whatever, is harder than it looks!" Dave mused. "Especially for us! Do you have any idea how much concentration it takes to work those things?"

"And making yourself have 'hands' under those gloves isn't?" I chuckled sarcastically.

"It's even harder when I'm doing _that_!" Dave looked over at me, lifting one of his tentacles towards me, and started to morph the ends into an actual hand shape. Caught by surprise and stunned from the secret being revealed, it was instantly retracted before I could comprehend what I just witnessed. Dave returned his attention back to his plate, then.

I laughed nervously, softly said, "What the hell?" then reluctantly looked away and back down towards my food. Focusing on the delicious plate helped direct my attention away from whatever the shit that was, and I started joining Dave and the henchmen with their feast.

A few peaceful minutes in, Dave perked up, looking over everybody at first, then began to speak. "I thought this would be a good time to check in with you all about any progress or updates you may have! As well as an update of all _my_ plans, of course. Call it a casual report meeting." He paused for a moment, giving his henchmen a moment to prepare for conversation, then said, "Taylor! Swift call this weekend, am I right? Tell us how you handled the North Wind sighting?"

Taylor, a bright orange octopus in the back, sat up slightly to speak, in which he then proceeded to run with a series of gobbles as he explained what had happened. We all listened silently as he explained, although thankfully by the end of it Dave paraphrased everything so I could understand.

"So you're telling me the owl has been at it again, huh? Spying on us? Ugh, obviously North Wind would do that," Dave replied with a sneer. "But I'm glad to hear you shot off that pellet gun at her. Shame you missed, but oh well, that's better than nothing! Losers better watch out for us!"

I put down my fork in order to place my hand on my face. "A pellet gun, really?" I asked under my breath. I didn't know how much worse off we'd be with North Wind with that stunt, but at this point I don't think we could possibly be in any more trouble with them than we already were.

Dave shifted his attention to the other, far side of the table. "Will! Smith! How did the confiscation of the bazooka go?"

Two blue-ish colored octopuses sat up then, one more of a teal, one a navy color as they began to speak with Dave, the back and forth between them taking much longer than the report about the pellet gun. They started dramatically reenacting the stunt with their tentacles, gobbling louder and more frantically to show emphasis on what had happened.

"Oh! Glorious!" Dave cheered. "You even destroyed the files? Did you destroy the evidence, too?"

More gobbles, but this time they were more calm and confined. It seemed like everything had worked out.

"I'm so proud of you, gentlemen! That would have been a real pain if the humans got any bright ideas." Dave shifted his attention over at me. "You hear that, Kailey? No worries there!"

"Yay," I said flatly. I almost had forgotten about that stupid ass thing. Dave taking me with him on that particular kidnapping still haunted me to this day with that shark and everything. Ugh. I still get shivers about it.

"Well then, if that's all you have for me, I have some updates for you all!" Dave said, keeping his eyes on me for a moment longer. "This one is important for you to hear to, dearest."

"Okay…" I said, letting my hand fall over my face roughly before I put my hand back down on the table to pay attention.

"As you all know, Kailey and I will be participating in the annual Macy's Parade here in New York City! On top of my commercial that has recently began airing, a series of in-person appearances will help immensely with our outreach. We also have plans to interview with a local journalist, who is most definitely going to help bring in the money once her story is published!"

The henchman started nodding seriously as they listened, waiting for Dave to continue.

"I also, reluctantly, have made a decision to change course with our next pledge drive. Having these drives at the local convention centers is great, but it's a stale atmosphere to say the least. The humans need association with my name, and with my history of, quote, 'helping penguins'…" Dave did a quote gesture with two of his tentacles to mimic that of what a person would do as he continued: "…we will be having our next pledge drive, tomorrow, at the Central Park Zoo."

The dining hall got exceedingly quiet. I felt exactly what everyone must've felt at that moment, because I paused myself, swallowing my food slowly before I turned to look back up at Dave. "Umm… hon, don't you think that's... hmm, well with your history there and all." Awkwardness was spilling off of me even though I tried to remain casual.

"The Central Park Zoo contacted Dr. Brine and offered to host him for his next pledge drive. It's strategically a good move, but…"

"Dave, you know you don't have to do that," I said, my hand reaching out then to touch his 'shoulder'. I was concerned for him, but at the same time I wasn't really sure how to help him. "I understand that we need money, but—"

"You're right, we need the money," Dave sighed, interrupting my sentence before I could finish. "But not one, but two mess-ups, have to be covered now. The only way we are going to recover is if we finish replacing what we have lost. The submarine is gone, my island lab, what was left of my Medusa Serum, my mechs and all. All we have left is a few jets and a chopper from my fleet stored here. Besides…" he paused, looking over my direction again. "I have a lot to protect right now than just myself, you know."

I found myself blushing, taken aback by his sudden shift from business and to his feelings for me again. It wasn't that I forgot that he loved me, but I felt like he had more to worry about than me sometimes. I guess those thoughts were completely wrong. It was nice being reminded, though. Ugh, here I go again, being all mushy. Somebody punch me, please.

"I'll be going with you, of course," I said, looking at him tenderly. "I don't want you going to that place alone."

"I'm never alone…" Dave said, almost longingly. "Not anymore."

A series of soft, cheery, high pitched garbles could be heard then, the entirety of the henchmen looking adoringly at us from all corners of the dining hall. Even Kevin was peaking from the kitchen doors, staring at us from across the room.

I found my blush from Dave's prior comment shifted to one of embarrassment, as I glared at all the henchmen. "Hey, don't y'all still have dinner to finish? You can't have your dessert if you don't eat your meat!" I felt like a mom scolding her kids.

God, I felt like I had a lot on my plate coming up, and it wasn't the salmon.


	3. Bad Memory Lane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while since the first Normal was published, so I wanted to go ahead and give a reminder that these fics are slightly canon-divergent in the fact that animals can speak to humans, but the "code" prohibits them from doing so. Like I mentioned in my first fic, the change was necessary to allow these stories to work, but of course other than that, I try to stay true to canon material in the PoM/Madagascar movie-verse.

The limo ride to the Central Park Zoo was an awfully quiet one. The sheer contrast of previous limo rides I've had with Dave to pledge drives might as well be compared to night and day. There were no giddy chuckles, prior discussion of plans—nothing. I absolutely saw this coming though. To say I didn't would be an outright lie, since I knew good and well how much Dave probably felt about this place. But what was I supposed to say? I had already asked him about this at dinner the night prior, but he kept justifying it. 

With every passing moment I found myself checking back on him with a subtle side-stare, seeing only each time how absolutely still and contemplative he was. Occasionally I'd get a pit feeling in my chest, the kind of feeling you'd get of empathetic pain from watching someone get hurt, emotionally or physically.

My imagination started going off, placing myself in what I imagined what must've been his life there… his life in the Central Park Zoo. To be loved by many, and then none at all? To be tossed away so quickly without any foresight? Any gratitude for your prior presence? No one wondering where you went off to? Oh shit, that was awful. Instead of becoming sadder just thinking about it, I started getting angry. It was a soft anger, the kind I could keep down and hidden well. This was my driving point that finally broke me from my own thoughts about what it could have been like for Dave, and back to him, here in the present with me.

I found my hand had gently placed itself on top of his that had been set on the seat between us. The feeling of his gloved 'hand' was cold—soft, as usual, but it was also very still. My eyes slowly lifted from the placement of my hand on top of his, my ring picking up glows as the car passed from under trees and reflected sunlight. When I finally looked at his face, I could see it was filled with contemplation, slightly absent from my touch, but the longer I held it I finally saw his eyes drifting from its mindless stare at the limos interior, and to me.

"We'll be out of this shitty place faster than you know it," I tried encouraging him, growing serious to reflect his own feelings. "In-n-out; like the burger joint." I smiled sheepishly at my own joke, this in itself causing him to reflect a grin back at me.

"You're certainly right!" Dave responded, his chipper voice returning—a sudden shift from the silence in the limo. "And besides, we don't have to worry about Skipper and his trio of delinquents. At least that place is rid of _them_."

"Yeah!" I encouraged. They were traveling with the circus touring North America, now with their friends still, last I heard. Seemed life at the Central Park Zoo was very much left behind by everyone that had once lived there. I was secretly beginning to hope that with all the absence of the zoos old residents, Dave's painful memories would be dulled.

I _hoped_ , at least.

The limo slowed down then, a slight turn sending my attention at Dave to shift towards the windows. The parking lot of the zoo was absolutely packed; the line itself for entry mirrored the dense parking lot. Even with the mere arrival of our limo into the lot, and our slow procession up to the entrance, a wave of cheers immediately met my ears.

"The turnout is incredible!" Dave exclaimed, propping himself then against the door to look out the window. Whatever was left of his meekness was now exchanged for excitement. I watched as he used this attention fuel to pick himself up, soon setting the mood as he prepared to open the car doors by placing his hand on the door handle. Before he did open the door, he took a deep breath, seemingly exhaling his next series of words in the same lung full of air. "Here we go, dearest! Our legions of adoring fans await!"

"Don't you mean _your_ fans," I said, attempting to be as supportive as I could.

"No, I meant what I said," Dave replied, winking at me.

For some reason I tensed up at this, a lightning bolt shooting into my stomach like Thor himself was attacking my digestive system. I tried blinking a few times to try and settle myself back into reality. I have no idea why, but even though I had known Dave for a while now, every time he did that—that something flirty thing, was so… _weird_. Not in a bad way though. Just the fact that, you know… he was an octopus. Ugh! I don't know. I felt like my brain was constantly trying to justify and comprehend that when he was in his Dr. Brine disguise. I wonder if there would ever be a day I'd have the courage to walk up to my—I don't know—freaking mother and say, 'Hey Mom, look! I'm like Scarlet! My fiancé is actuality an octopus!'

Dave opened the door then upon the cars stopping point, the sound of the mass cluster of collective voices and cheers becoming much louder now. When Dave sat up out of the car, the volume just got cranked higher, and when I followed out after him, more so.

"Yeah! It's the Brines'!" I heard a guy yell in the back. An air horn went off, too.

Dave got into deceit mode instantly, although I'm sure his reaction to the attention was as honest as he could get. He started doing his routine of doing a few twirls, and then suddenly shifted that in to a moonwalk. This only made the crowd loose it even more, which at that point I wouldn't be surprised if the sound could be compared to a freaking jet engine.

"I am so glad to see you all here!" Dave cheered outward, projecting his voice rather well despite the overwhelming crowd. "Please—please continue to remain in line as I head forward to prepare the pledge drive booths!"

More cheers. Some people in the front were literally in tears of joy as we made our way past them and towards the entrance. Here, a couple of zoo staff members met us, excited just like the rest of the bunch.

"We have everything setup for you, Dr. Brine!" one staff member said. "We will not be officially opening the gate doors until you give us the word. People will be escorted inside once everything is ready."

"Oh, which reminds me!" another began, this one looking like an intern, obvious by the sight of a pin with New York University's logo and name on his shirt. "I have been told to inform you by my manager that we'd love to offer you a tour of the zoo whenever you are finished for the day. It'll be after closing, so we figured it would be a good opportunity to show you the exhibits when the attendees are gone."

I felt a pause. An incredibly short pause, but a pause, nonetheless. Dave managed to spit out another reply, despite this, saying, "Ah, how lovely! I'd be more than happy to have a look around your establishment."

"Oh, are you sure we have… the time, Octavius?" I asked out of caution. Looking up at him he still looked happy, but my ever growing awareness of the situation was creating an environment for me where I felt like I was walking around eggshells. I knew Dave wouldn't have a full blown breakdown or anything, especially in front of these people, but still.

"Nay!" Dave said, clasping his hands together for effect, which seemed to work on making the staff smile even bigger at us from their invitation being accepted. "Nothing means more to me than to support our zoos."

"I'm so glad to hear, Dr. Brine!" the intern chimed happily. "We'd love it if you could pose for a few pictures, too. For our website? We figured a good shot with you and your fiancée next to the penguins would be suiting considering everything you've tried to do for them!"

Dave's eye twitched, very momentarily. I felt my hairs stand on end on my neck, tense as I glanced back and forth between him and the zoo staff. The good thing though was nobody here caught that Dave had a bad reaction to it, because within a few seconds the staff started walking ahead, beginning to escort us through the gates and into the zoo.

Leaving behind the crowd made things settle a little bit, my mind even breaking momentarily from the craziness beyond and to the anticipated tranquil pre-opening zoo atmosphere itself. I could hear some animals in the distance chatter, although while I normally would have heard the simple sounds of animal morning calls and songs, I instead heard them. Actually _heard_ them. It was so strange that I found my eyes darting around the zoo staff in front of us again to check if they were hearing what I heard, but when I found they weren't fazed by the monkeys screaming "POOP PIES FOR BREAKFAST, EUSTACE!", proceeded by a smacking sound, then a terrified scream, I began to realize how blissfully unaware they were. Like were they still hearing just monkey coos or something? Or were they just that dense to reality? I knew animals had a code thing going on, but you'd think a slip-up like this would make them turn their heads, but no.

Once the upcoming visual of the pledge drive setup came into view, I fell out of my thoughts again and started focusing on the present. However, this wasn't necessarily a good thing either, because we were setup right beside the _penguin exhibits_.

"Here we are Dr. Brine!" one of the staff said again, extending their hand out towards the long table and booth. "Take your time as you get situated and we'll prepare for the guest. Just let us know."

"For _sure_ ," Dave said, absolutely seething at that point. I didn't know Dave was still this mad about the penguins, but that simple thought in of itself was absolutely cutting the actual problem short. As soon as the staff left back to the front, I placed myself in front of Dave, oh so ever so cautiously.

"Dave, do you need sit down? Or, I don't know, get an umbrella or something so I can shield the penguins so you don't have to look at them?"

"It's not just the penguins…" Dave started to admit, his voice low as his eyes practically glistened from becoming overwhelmed with emotion. The sound of a soft pat of water was hitting the glass.

"What is it?" I asked, being persistent. My mind was shooting through all sorts of problems that could be wrong with the exhibit, but it was all wrong. Nothing I could think of was the reason.

"That tank," Dave began, "used to be mine."

My eyes got big, realization hitting me. I found myself dumbfounded for the longest time, but when Dave finally looked towards me, as if in a way to reach out in order to cling to something—anything, I started talking again.

"Dave… wow I am so sorry," I said. "I can't believe this. I can't believe those idiots would do this!"

"It's not their fault," Dave replied, rather bitterly. "They don't know any better, it seems."

"What do you mean they don't know any better?!" I gasped out, suddenly getting mad again from his statement. "Of course they know better! Shitholes!"

"I mean they don't know any better because they literally don't see it," Dave continued, calm as opposed to my irritability for this. "Animals come and go. When the penguins came, they got the big tank because they're cute. Me?" He paused again, looking towards the ground. "I'm just an octopus. Who wants an old octopus, right?"

"I want an old octopus, that's who!" I fussed, but when the sentence had its chance to settle between us Dave's eyes shifted quickly from the concrete and back up to me, his 'arms' behind his back, making him seem poised. The only thing that no longer could retain this poise was his expression, which again carried upon it a smirk only Dave himself could give.

"Hmmm," he hummed.

 _What the hell!?_ I thought then and there, but it wasn't because I was mad anymore. He was doing it—again! I found that my face had grown incredibly hot, even the chilled autumn New York air failing at quelling the literal sauna that was overwhelming my poor cheeks. "Okay Dave, so whenever you're ready!" I said, attempting to get back to business. I had such a hard time getting a hold of myself when he did that.

. . . . . . .

"Goodbye Dr. Brine! It was so nice meeting you! Good luck on your research!" The last donator finally waved us goodbye and began walking down the walkways of the zoo, soon disappearing into the many labyrinths of exhibits towards the exit. With the last one gone, that same stillness returned to us stationed near the penguin exhibit, leaving me to take a moment to myself to register how I was feeling.

The day had come and gone quicker than I had imagined, but the toll the pledge driving took on my energy levels had been essentially dumped to a big fat zero. In my exhausted state, I had very briefly forgotten that we had one more thing to do after all this: get a tour of the zoo. I felt that tinge of dread fill me again, both as means of my tiredness yelling at me to stop and head home to sleep, but in another way anticipating the emotional rollercoaster I was bound to go on with Dave.

I had to take in a deep breath and sigh when I saw the staff approaching again, this time with them what looked to be one of the zoos managers, the intern as well now carrying a decent sized camera for the shoot.

"I'm so happy to hear of your success today, Dr. Brine!" the manager spoke aloud as he walked up to our now empty booths. "Are you and your fiancée ready to see the exhibits?"

"Yes," Dave said, his attempt at professionalism convincing to the untrained eye, but I knew better.

 _Oh shit here we go_ , I thought. I tried looking on the bright side, though: maybe all the cute animals were asleep. The penguin exhibit next to us did in fact cause some distractions, but the distractions were usually enticing to the donators _after_ they gave us money, so it wasn't too bad, I guess? Whatever! I might be thinking of the bright side, but I figured Dave was practically at the peak of internal rage by now.

"While you were doing your pledge drive, we took a few pictures of you guys in action," the manager started to explain, "but we'd love to go ahead and get a shot now with everyone gone. Just the two of you, if that's okay?"

I looked awkwardly over at Dave, trying to read his expression. It was tamed, which was good, but a very light spark in his eyes, ones of flames if he were a freaking anime character or something, were metaphorically present there.

"Yes! That's fine!" Dave said, throwing his arms in the air in exasperation. I felt like Dave would most certainly loose it then and there, because even the group of zoo staff had grown wide eyes for a moment after Dave's outburst. Like he always did, nonetheless, Dave recovered, saying, "A picture would be lovely. I'm excited just thinking about them being posted on your website!"

"We're so glad to hear!" the manager replied, the group of zoo staff happy once again. "If you can, would you two walk over in front of the tank? We will take you underneath the tank afterwards to get a shot there as well. Who knows, maybe we can get one with the baby penguins swimming behind you!"

"Of course," Dave said, fake-smiling the last bit through his teeth. That was when he began walking over towards the penguin exhibit, cueing me to follow after him. Once we got in front of the exhibit, we turned around in unison, looking over as the intern was preparing his camera to begin taking pictures.

"Say cheese!" the intern said happily.

"Cheese!" Dave and I responded in unison, the click of the photograph being taken as the camera's flash hit us. A few more shots like this were taken, no big stunts with the penguins acting behind us for a while, until one decided to jump in the air, photobombing us just as the intern caught it on camera during the fifth try.

"Oh, that was a good one!" the intern said giddily. "I think that one was it!"

"How nice," Dave said, his sarcasm coming out again, but the zoo staff were too preoccupied with the fact they had just obtained their shot to hear it that time. After they collaborated with each other for a bit longer, their heads perked up from looking at the camera, and back to us.

"Okay, Dr. Brine! Can you come with us to the lower levels? We wanna get a shot there too while we're here," the manager said.

Dave grumbled under his breath, then nodded. He started walking first with the zoo staff before I reluctantly followed again. I was cringing as I came up to the staircase to the lower levels, seeing the sighs predominantly for the penguins being advertised everywhere. Seriously, 'PENGUINS, PENGUINS, CUTE PENGUINS'! No wonder Dave was so pissed. I'd be a grumpy asshole too if I kept seeing this stuff everywhere.

The depths of the lower level of the exhibit were lit with a dim light, the light mostly blue due to the tank directly in front of us. Around us were fake rocks, helping with the underwater theme, reminding me for a split second of the damn dam tour I had been on earlier that summer with Dave.

"Look, there they are!" the manager said with glee, pointing his finger at the glass in front of us. Under the water, looking at us, were a handful of little baby penguins. They were still as they came up to the glass, looking at us curiously as we returned the stare back at them from our end.

"Yes, baby penguins!" Dave said, keeping up his act rather well. "We should take the picture now then? Quickly?" He lowered his voice then, shifting it into a whisper, saying in another grumble, " _so I can get the heck out of here_."

 _God, I'm so with you on that one, Dave,_ I thought. This was so awkward. Even for me.

"Great idea, Dr. Brine! We love to hear your enthusiasm!" the manager said.

Dave and I then went back into the routine that we had been coaxed into outside, and walked up to the tank. The closer we got, the more I felt like Dave could throw a punch at the glass if he wanted to and break it, sending the water gushing into the dark room. Reality seemed to get a hold of me rather quick when I found he didn't act on that imagined scenario of mine, and we turned around to face the zoo staff instead.

"Okay… this time, say penguins!" the intern said, trying to be amusing, but being the exact opposite. I found that I could not hold it back any longer, and ended up placing my hand on my forehead out of exhaustion. It was the least I could do to try and keep my feelings on this stain show at bay. Once I had a moment, I perked back up to pose for the picture with Dave.

"Penguins!" I said, playing into the request. However, my voice was alone, the sound of the camera clicking once again, and another light flash hit us. This brought my eyes to blink a few times in order to readjust to the dark room again.

"That one was good!" the intern said. "I like the serious vibe you're giving, Dr. Brine! It looks very… I don't know it has a lot of, _je ne sais_ _quoi_."

"Okay! We want to show you around a bit more. I'm sure the other animals haven't gone to sleep yet, so we still got time," the manager suggested then. "If you two would follow us…" They began out of the room and up the staircase, Dave yet again following after, with me just about to do the same.

However, this time something caught my eye, breaking me from my stride. The penguins had swum off by now, their tiny forms disappearing back into the big blue tank, when I glanced down towards the sand at the bottom, there a smaller separated tank next to the big penguin one. A puff of soot had been picked up and settled so quickly that it was bound to be another thing that would go over people's heads, but instead I couldn't help but notice it.

Appearing from among the tan sand, and green corral, a small red octopus suddenly morphed into existence in front of me as it settled its colors to its bright from, reveling itself from its environment. It looked like an octopus that could very well be among Dave's henchmen, but unlike the bunch that hung out with Dave, this one looked very old. Its eyes had a sunken look to them, a darker red than the rest of its body.

"Hey, Dave," I spoke up, not breaking eye contact with the octopus. "Hold up for a second."

"What is it?" Dave said, stopping just before he reached the first step of the staircase to look back at me.

"Umm…" I had a hard time getting out my words at first, biting my lip to try and get the words to come to mind. "I didn't see any advertisements for an octopus, did you?"

"I did," Dave said. He lifted up his right hand, turning his body around to where he could point up at the upper right corner of the dark room. It was the _one_ thing I had missed, but I feel like pretty much anybody would miss it. It was something you had to have _known_ was there in the first place.

 _'Monsters of Abyss: Meet the Octopus'_ , the sign said. It wasn't even lit to draw attention to it. It was just kind of there for the sake of being there.

"Let's get going," Dave said, his tone still disgruntled. "The sooner we get this done the sooner we can go home."

I could only listen to him as he walked up the staircase then, seeing the bright red octopus standing out among the blue world around him. Old…forgotten… alone. Initially, I was amazed that Dave didn't think much of it other than continued bitterness. It seemed getting through with his 'job' and out of here was his top and only priority, which I couldn't blame him for but... I don't know, really.

Thinking back on that moment now, this was just another time where _I_ could have said something—done something. _Anything._

But, you know how it is: sometimes the right words and actions don't come until much, much later.


	4. Parades of Papier-Mâché

"How are you doing, Darren?" 

A few milliseconds of silence met the question, although from a few feet down the hall that silence might as well have been a flying ass time bomb about to explode into volcano. Hearing that made me haul ass so fast towards what was so obviously Dave TALKING TO MY DAD that I almost shat myself.

"I'm doing fine, Octavius," my Dad's voice answered. I heard this as I sprinted, every syllable from this unfolding conversation evident to my heightened senses.

I reached Octo Corp's surveillance room then; many monitors were portraying the camera feeds stationed around the property. Dave was sitting at one of the computers to the left, voice chatting my father with the voice chat software. I had opened my mouth to try and say something, but instead a soft airy "huhhhhh" whimpered from the back of my throat as I registered there was nothing I could do to stop this.

Dave had noticed me rush in, and turned around from the computer, waving at me with one of his tentacles as an innocent, joyful expression met my petrified one.

"Oh, well I'm calling you today to check up on your plans for… Thanksgiving, right?" Dave asked, still looking at me, although as his question had finished he had turned back to the computer to engage in the conversation.

"Yes, we are having Thanksgiving at our new house, thanks to you," my Dad replied, his tone more mild than cautious unlike the last time he had spoken with Dave. "Which brings me to say: you are more than welcome to come. I know you are busy preparing your work, and I'm sure Kailey is busy helping you, but it would mean a lot if you could bring her. My wife and I would love to show you the house we were able to buy. It would also be great to have you guys over for the weekend while you're here."

"Oh, how wonderful!" Dave beamed. "I'm so happy I could help you with the new house. After all, it's the least I could do to help my future in-laws."

My hand flown to my face, smacking my forehead with a harsh facepalm. It had stung a bit, but I didn't care. I closed my eyes forcefully as I continued to listen.

"We'd love to attend your dinner, and stay around for the weekend! We will be busy with the Macy's Parade Thanksgiving morning, and I have an interview after that, but as soon as it's over I'll schedule us to fly over before dinner."

"Oh, I didn't realize that you were involved in that," my dad stated. "You don't have to rush over if you can't."

I felt a sigh of relief escape my lungs then, my breath having been held for a while without my realization. Despite this momentary relief, whatever retraction of not having to go with Dave to my parent's house was immediately receded when Dave replied.

"No, it won't be trouble at all! It'll be easy. Just don't start eating without us, you hear?"

My Dad chuckled, which was a surprise, but I guess he was also shifted into a semi-business mode right now. "Will do. We usually eat around lunch, but we can hold off and have actual Thanksgiving _dinner_ this year. Well, I'm going to go ahead and let you go. See you guys soon."

"Bye, bye!" Dave said, thus ending the voice call. He immediately turned around before I could react. "You hear that, dearest? We get to go see your parents and their new house!"

"I heard," I bluntly responded, slowly letting my hand slide off my face as I focused my attention on him. "That's a horrible idea, you know."

"What!?" Dave was shocked. "What do you mean? It's a great idea!"

"No, it's bad because you're going to have to go and meet my freaking family. Not to mention I'm sure staying the night is going to be difficult."

"Kailey, I promise nothing bad will happen," Dave said, now making his way across the room to meet me. "You know me! It's not like they're going to find out that I'm—"

"An octopus, _I know_ ," I interrupted. "It's just… God, I don't know." I felt so unsure of this. How on earth was Dave going to keep this up, possibly for an entire weekend? I started imagining what would happen if he slipped up, even just a little bit. What if my mom walked in on him out of his disguise or something? What would happen if he decided to shove an entire turkey leg into his mouth like he did that entire ass fish at the Japanese restaurant earlier that year? I felt like I wanted to roll my eyes back and just stop being alive temporarily.

"You haven't seen your family in a long time anyway," Dave said. "Not to mention I'm sure they miss you too, and want to know how you are doing. How _we_ are doing."

"Yeah, that too…" I trailed off. "I guess this whole lying-to-my-parent's thing is harder than lying to the rest of the entire human race, you know."

"I understand that," Dave said, his chipperness dying down a bit as he softened up. "You know I appreciate all your help with that." For a second, his eyes shifted around my face as he reached down to pick up my left hand, bringing it up to view in between the both of us. The fact that he was trying to make obvious the ring on my finger became evident after we had stood there for a bit in the quiet room. "If you don't want to lie about one thing, maybe actually being my fiancée would be a first step. Say yes, won't you? Marry me?"

I blushed, turning my head to the side as I bashfully tried to avoid his gaze. "Dave, seriously?" I asked, chuckling awkwardly.

"You were the one that told me to keep asking." He tilted his head to the side. "So I'll keep asking."

"Yeah, I know, nerd," I responded. I hadn't realized that Dave had reached out towards my face, soon caressing my cheek to coax my head to turn back towards him. It was a touch that was cold, but held all the warmth and love in the world within it. I found for a moment I couldn't respond as he stared at me adoringly for a few moments, unable to tear myself away for a time before I sat up straight, placing my hand on the back of his tentacle that was touching me. "Anyway, I better be getting to sleep. We've got a big day tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're right," Dave sighed. "Goodnight, dearest."

We parted slowly, softly, only my turn towards the exit making me break eye contact with him. I was blissfully living in the moment as I walked away into the hallways to venture up to my office, my heart at a flutter as I thought about how he asked me again to marry him.

Ugh! I wasn't normally the sappy type, but I might as well get used to the fact that I wasn't in a normal situation anyway, let alone a normal relationship.

. . . . . . .

"Wakey, wakey, gentleman! Today is the big day!" Dave's voice was incredibly loud as it filtered through the building's intercom. There wasn't that echo effect that would've been present if we still had the submarine, but that detail was made up for due to the fact that he must've had his mouth right up against the mic to create that blasting noise, shooting me awake like a pan had fallen from a shelf right beside me. I had been using a roll-out bed to sleep in since the submarine was destroyed by North Wind, so it seemed there was really no getting away from my office, so to speak. Not only that, but there was no getting away from that stupid ass intercom just outside the hallway.

Tiredly, I peeled the covers off of me and hung my feet over the side of the makeshift bed, staring around my office for a while as I tried to transition from being dead asleep to awake, preparing myself mentally for yet another day of blatant lying to millions of dumbass people.

Yes, today was none other than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but that wasn't just it either. There was also the interview afterwards with Rayonna, and then immediately after that Dave and I would be heading home to see my _parents_ , for God's sake.

I groaned, placing a hand again on my head as I came to terms with my waking reality, and sat up, venturing over to the small dresser in the office to take out my clothes for the day, and started getting ready. After my preparations I looked into the mirror on the side door of the dresser, brushing my hair out and all that, when I finally looked at myself seriously, managing a classy fake smile.

 _Time for more bullshit_ , I thought to myself sarcastically, my outward expression completely clashing with what was going on inside my head as I coped, and turned around to head out my office door.

Venturing out of the office I was immediately greeting by a bunch of the henchmen walking back and forth down the hallway. Towards the leftward portion of the hall trailed a big glass window, beyond this revealing the large garage facility that housed the rest of Dave's jets and helicopters. What was left of them, at least. I could see a bunch of octopuses down there as well, perhaps preparing one of the jets for our departure to Houston this afternoon.

Catching a glimpse of a shade of blue, I looked down the other side of the hallway, seeing Edgar approaching for his daily morning checkup and info dump with me. In his grasp was a little notepad, a new one now due to the fact that he must've gone through them faster than I knew it due to all the translations he'd give me from the octopus henchmen.

Edgar arrived at my side, saluting me as he did so, and then extended the notebook. Once it was passed to me I opened the cover to start reviewing its contents, seeing all the discussions that the henchmen had been asking of me over the last 24 hours or so.

"Tell RJ and Jacob they can have the day off," I said as my eyes scanned over the statements written down. "The float is done, and there's no more preparations scheduled, so they're good to go. As for Penny…" I trailed off, putting a finger to my chin in thought. "Tell her I don't have time right now to do another gaming tournament with the squadron, but I'll definitely put it on my calendar for next week." I nodded, handing the notepad back to Edgar, then watched him scramble off back to whatever else he was doing.

Next, off to find Dave!

A few turns down a couple hallways and an elevator ride down to the first floor finally brought me to where Dave was. All prepared in his Dr. Brine persona, he was directing the henchmen in the room some final orders before he left for the parade.

"Jason! Lee! I'm putting you in charge of security for the next few days." He pointed at a pair of mint-colored octopus across the room, and then shifted his attention immediately after that towards a smaller fuchsia-colored one towards the doorway. "Mariah, carry the research documents I've prepared for today to the limo, please."

"Research documents?" I asked out of curiosity. "What research have you been doing?"

"Good morning, Kailey! Well, you were the one that told me to prepare some research to present to the journalist, remember?" Dave said, his attention settling on me for the time. "I modified my findings on the Medusa Serum for my interview."

"What!?" I said. "I certainly hope you edited the ever living shit out of that then!"

" _What is the ever living shit?_ —never mind, dearest! I assure you it's perfectly acceptable to inform the humans."

I stared at him suspiciously, attempting to read his thoughts through his mannerisms and expressions, but that was insanely hard to do, because the next thing I knew he was immediately back to barking at a few more of his henchmen, sending them scurrying around back and forth and around the lab to get to work. I had to admit that at least he was being very proficient with this, though. If Dave was good at anything it was definitely his preparations.

"Okay!" Dave said cheerfully, exhausting all his commands to finally settle his attention fully on me. Clasping his hands together, he said, "I am ready when you are, Kailey! We should get going to make sure the float is in line and the dancers are prepared."

"Right," I acknowledged.

Together we departed from the lab and towards the front of the building, exiting Octo Corp's front doors to be greeted by the limo. Waiting there was one of the henchmen with his little driver's hat, saluting to Dave and I as we approached. Mariah had also just managed to place all of Dave's 'research documents' into the cargo of the limo as well; finishing, she lifted her body from out of the back of the limo, and gave us a wave before she departed quickly back inside the building.

"Ah, perfect timing!" Dave said. "This morning has been running quite smoothly. Hopefully the odds will be on our side all day—which they will!" He took in a deep breath, appreciating the crisp morning air. "Ahhh! Yes, glorious day! I love it when things come together so flawlessly, don't you, Kailey?"

"Nothing has happened yet," I said.

"Oh, don't be so modest! I can already taste success. Just you watch. Our appearance in the parade is going to be a hit, our interview with Rayonna will go smoothly, and so will our trip to Houston!"

 _So much to do,_ I thought, imagining everything play out in my mind. While I continued to be the doubter to Dave's confidence even then and there, I tried again to latch onto his positivity. He was confident enough, so I guess playing along as assistant like I've always done was the best thing. It's kept me alive this long, anyway.

Going into 'backseat mode' came easily as I crawled into the limo with Dave, and soon watched as we drove away from the Octo Corp building for the morning. The streets of New York were already proving to be much different than other days as we navigated through the city; due to the increase in attendance for the parade, traffic, although always horrible, was denser than usual, and the closer we got to where we were supposed to be, even the sidewalks became congested with people arriving to grab good spots for the viewing. A few more streets down, the henchman driving us finally pulled over, turning around to let loose a series of gobbles in order to inform Dave that we must've arrived.

"Ah, thank you very much for the lift!" Dave said. "We'll be off now. I'll give you a call once we're finished with everything; I'll need to grab the documents for our interview today, and after that meeting you can pick us up and bring us back to the building." After he finished speaking to the henchman, he nodded my direction, cueing me to follow, and then once again opened the limo door to allow a series of new voices and music to flood into my ears.

All lined up on the street before us were the floats for the parade. It seemed to go on forever as I looked ahead, each float unique and interesting in its own right, along with some of the performers to match that of the theme of the float. Some drums were tapping, and wind instruments were sounding off somewhere in the anticipating parade. Musicians practicing their pieces before things got serious, I supposed.

I was about to ask where our float was, but before I was able to Dave had taken my hand, and we started down the line to pass the stationary parade. Once we got to a series of science themed floats, even passing one sponsored by National Geographic, I knew we were there.

Yes, there it was, all in its glory: Dave's octopus themed parade float. Not just that, but in front of the float were the dancers Dave had told me about, dressed in bright neon colors, tints of pinks, teals, and yellows. On top of it all these dancers, consisting of a mixture of men and women, were wearing big weird looking pink wigs that were styled to—I don't know know—look like brains or something. On their arms they were even wearing tentacle sleeves.

"Wow Dave, I'm so glad you're subtle," I commented sarcastically. "Why do the dancers have dumb ass wigs that look like hairy pink brains, anyway?"

"What?" Dave asked, turning his body my way as he looked my direction. "I don't understand what you mean, dear. The wigs are octopus themed—not brain themed. You know, like our heads? Like I said a long time ago, I gotta stick to my roots, you know!"

"Sure, right," I replied. "So when do we start?"

"Soon!" Dave responded, this time in an exhale of excitement. "We better get to the top so we're prepared for when the parade starts." He latched onto my hand a bit tighter then as we went up to our float. Upon our arrival the dancers below started to happily wave at us, their tentacle sleeves bouncing around as I looked upon them in terror while I tried offhand to keep myself from tripping as I scaled up the float toward the top.

Finally upon our pedestal of the sorts, I had a pretty good view of some of the other floats ahead. Two sets up I could see a fairly large Pikachu float, followed by what looked like the Baby Shark float Dave had forewarned me about a few days earlier. Just looking at it made me twist my lips in an unsatisfied fashion as memories of the dumb song pelted my memory like hail. The smiling cartoony sharks decorated along the float's backside just made the icing on the cake.

"I hope to God they don't play that stupid song the entire time," I said out loud.

"What song?" Dave asked, hearing me despite my voice becoming muffled by the commotion around me.

"Jesus, Dave, are you really that dense?" I spit out. "We're behind the horrible Baby Shark float, you're words exactly, including "horrible"… remember?"

"Oh, yes, I'm quite aware of the absolute decimation of what they've done to sharks in this case," Dave responded. "Humans 'cutiefiying' things. Ugh!" He actually scowled then, which surprised me, but I wasn't going to complain.

"We'll just have to outdo them, won't we?" I said, lifting my hand up to Dave to await a high five.

"YES!" Dave hollered, lifting his hand upwards to smack mine, unknowingly doing it so hard that I grinded my teeth together momentarily after the initially shock of the hit set in. I wondered how the ever living hell I didn't have a broken limb from being around Dave with his tight embraces and harsh high fives. "I've got some spectacular effects on the float ready to go once we hit the press!" Dave continued to explain. "They're going to be very impressed with my little show. I've got lights ready, music—pretty much anything you can think of!"

"Mm-mh…." I mumbled my acknowledgement, still focused on my hand that currently seemed to have a heartbeat of its own. I didn't want to ruin the moment for Dave, so I kept it to myself. Maybe on our plane ride to Houston I'd scold him to give me softer high fives.

"It's time for the show, folks!" I faintly heard an announcer from the distance begin to say with a megaphone. He repeated this a few times as he drove down the line of floats on a scooter, his announcement getting loud enough for me to hear all the way through as he got closer. "It's time for the show, folks! Be prepared in T-minus 60 seconds to begin the parade!"

"Here we gooooo!" I said, a bit sarcastically at first, but as my "ooos" came out I suddenly found myself smiling. Looking on the bright side, I had never been to the Thanksgiving Parade before. Not to mention I was in the parade with my favorite person—I mean, octopus, whatever. Maybe this was going to be a good day after all. I was starting to settle in the mood of what Dave had been radiating all morning: confidence, excitement.

Then it happened. The song, soft at first as it began to play in the speakers of the float in front of us, suddenly got cranked up just as the floats began to move, and we proceeded forward. Was I seriously going to listen to the Baby Shark song the _entire time_!? I Instantly went from being relatively happy, to wanting to throw myself onto the concrete, but due to my eyes briefly glancing beside me at Dave in a side-stare, I saw that his reaction was _exactly_ the same as mine.

_Horrified._

"Why did they take a chant about a shark mauling somebody and make it cute!?" Dave gasped. "Why does this always happen!?"

I was too preoccupied with having to be behind the Baby Shark float at the time, but thinking about it now it was pretty funny that Dave not only 1: knew exactly the historical context to the Baby Shark chant, but 2: acknowledged the weirdness that a song about murder was now a children's song. Like, why was that a thing with people? Who decided it was fun to take songs about death and make them into cute sounding nursery rhymes? Do people sing about murder to their kids to cope!?

As the floats moved, some distance managed to break between us and the Baby Shark float. Luckily, this somewhat drowned out the music, and with the addition to the cheers of the crowd this helped with diversifying what I was hearing. The dancers in front of us had by then gotten into the full swing of their performance, making our arrival quite a spectacular one as we followed the parade route.

"Remember, I've got the best part saved for when we stop in front of the press!" Dave told me, raising his voice loudly so I could hear him through all the commotion.

"Yeah, yeah, the lights, right?" I replied, attempting to remain calm and 'professional' from atop of the float with Dave.

"More! It'll be cool, I promise!" Dave yelled back, raising one of his 'hands' then as he began waving at the crowd. He nudged me with his opposite 'elbow', said, "Just go with the flow, dearest! Smile and wave at our legion of fans!"

I continued with my fake smile, trying desperately to go ahead and wave at our fans, as Dave put it, but God did it feel odd. Again, duh—lying to thousands of people! It always bothered me that I had to do this kind of thing for Dave, from the day he first freaking kidnapped me and put me in that stupid magic circus act he pulled, to here and now. But yet again, as always, my excuse of a lifetime was I did it because… it was important to him. In the end, I did what I did, lying and all to my own kind, because doing so brought in what we needed to protect ourselves from North Wind, and mend what we had lost. I'm pretty sure that if Dave asked I'd die for him, if we're talking serious shit here.

The parade went on like this for a long while. We moved slowly forward with the other floats down the parade path, waved, listened to people cheer, "It's the Brines'!" more often than not. More _awwws_ , more air horns, more _woos_ and _ohhhs_ ; crying—the usual.

Finally, things got a little different. I saw the press, with all their cameras, microphones and getups. A announcer guy, all dressed up in a fancy coat, looked to be the main announcer. Floats were stopping in front of them briefly, giving a performance to show off to viewers watching at home all across the country, then after a few minutes moved forward for the next float in line. Baby Shark was stopped in front of the press then, giving me a moment to contemplate what the big idea was that Dave had in mind for this very moment.

"And here we go!" Dave said, placing his hand to his ear to begin talking into a little mic. "Proceed with the lights and music, gentleman!" I hadn't realized it, but he probably had some henchmen underneath the float working their magic. Low and behold, when it was our turn to get in front of the press, and just as the dancers began their routine in front of the cameras, our float lit up like freaking Christmas, and music began to spill out of speakers at the sides of the platform, spilling the song _You're The Best_ from that karate movie to introduce Dr. Octavius Brine's freakish twirls, stunts and whatever-the-hells. His strange stretchy dance immediately sent the press into a chaotic uproar of cheers and thrills; the crowd among both sides of the parade path met their cheers with even louder outcries of adoration.

I was rather content on standing by to watch Dave do his thing, when suddenly I was harshly ripped from my neutral standing position and taken into Brine's arms, which stirred the already loud crowd even more frantically than I thought possible.

"What the hell—" I huffed, but that was literally the only set of words I was able to get out before I was dunked, thrown around and caught again. After a few minutes of this routine, Dave set me up straight next to him as we posed for the photographers in the front to get a few pictures of us. A series of mini fireworks went off our float then, and a rush of confetti spewed forward and onto the press. Then, after all that, casually the float started moving forward, the state of the parade returning to like it had been before.

"Dang, Dave, you could've warned me!" I finally was able to say, smoothing out my lab coat once he finally let me go.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself," Dave said, grinning my direction. "The people love it though, you know."

"Of course," I said, still a bit irritated. "Is everything for your fans now?" It's not like I didn't like dancing with Dave, but all the fireworks, and chaos of his super ultra-desire to put on a show sometimes caught me off guard, and quite frankly, made me nervous. He should know by now how much of an introvert I am.

"No…" Dave cooed. "I just wanted to dance with you too, I guess." He put a 'hand' to the back of his neck, grinning my direction.

I paused mid stroke on my sleeves as I looked at him looking at me, my face going from slightly irritated to completely flat within an instant as my cheeks flared up in another blush. He was getting way to good at cutting me off from my anger bursts. "Dammit Dave, why do you do this to me?" I finally said.

"Do what?" He asked, raising a brow, although as he continue to stare this slightly confused persona of his finally shifted as realization took over, his crooked-toothed grin taking stage on his expression. "Oh, I know… It's obvious, cause you do it all the time."

"Don't," I said, putting a hand to the side of my face to shield my eyes from his stare. "Stop."

"Don't stop?" He joked, morphing my words together. "I'll never stop making you blush."

I was trying so hard not to lose it on top of the float with millions of people watching me. I couldn't make up my mind if I was embarrassed, flattered, or what, and it was even harder to focus on my feelings with so much going on around me in terms of noises, smells, and the cold air hitting my skin, chilling even though my clothes. I finally parted my hand from my face, having the courage to look at Dave again, although that was a mistake because it immediately sent me into another blush as he was trying to do something I could only describe as an attempt to be like… hot or something, but failing at it. He was keeping up his crooked-toothed smirk, but on top of it he had a hand leaning on the props next to us, with one leg crossed over another, as another hand swept through his fake wig.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Trying to make you blush," he responded.

I blinked a few times, slowly. "Who told you to do this?"

"James, Earl, and Jones," Dave responded, keeping up his act, but the series of name puns just sent me into another wave of laughter instead. I saw through my hysterics that he sat upright, confused as to why I was laughing, completely unbeknownst to him how he was, yet again, continuously savagely punning the heck out of celebrity names.

"Sorry, wow," I said, whipping a tear from my eye. "That was a good one."

"Did I say something wrong, or?"

"No, Dave… you say all the right things, believe me." I chuckled a bit again. "Please, never stop being you."

"That's kind of you to say," Dave said. "I don't hear it often."

"Hm? Is that so? Then I'll say it again: never stop being you; hilarious, wonderful, perfect you." After I said that, he immediately reached out and took my hand, holding onto it as his other hand clasped over the top of mine that he was already holding.

"What did I do to deserve you?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Does it matter anyway?" I asked, mustering up a smile of my own for him. "But hey, we got a show to put on!" I gestured out to the crowd. "All your adoring fans have all their eyes set on you! Let's give them your best, huh?"

"Absolutely!" Dave cheered. "I have a great idea that would make them cheer."

"More fireworks?" I asked.

"More than one way, you could say," Dave grinned, extending his hand. "Dance with me?"

"Oh, how kind of you to ask," I said, attempting to do so sarcastically, but I couldn't help but giggle again after a moment of trying to be serious. "Sure—" My hand had already taken his, and before I could even finish my acknowledgement, he had already taken me into another series of dances and twirls. I saw the lights of the float light up again, and heard the boom of another round of fireworks go off, deep blue seas of papier-mâché and confetti falling around us. I had no idea if fireworks were even allowed in the parade, but I guess rules could be broken for the famous Dr. Octavius Brine.


	5. Coffee Shop Interview

The wave of voices could still be heard long after the parade had come to an end, and our float had arrived to its final destination with all the others. While there was that reliving feeling of having completed one thing with Dave, I was immediately reminded of the second, inevitable one that seemed to bounce on top of me the second I let me guard down.

"Oh, Dr. Brine! Ms. Kailey!" Rayonna Desiree's voice was unfortunately a pinnacle among the rest, catching my ears the instant she called us. I felt a shiver crawl up my back just thinking about what Dave was going to say to her about this whole research thing, further elaborating his horrible series of lies that he had built for himself.

As a matter-of-fact, thinking about this entire hellscape of a situation was odd on its own: and when I say that, I mean specifically his entire lie, in of itself. How the hell was he able to keep it up for so long?

Recalling to what seemed like minor instances at the time, like when he announced our freaking 'marriage proposal' to thousands—millions of people, and when he was asked about what his future plans for the penguins were, I wondered how much these people would eat up before they caught onto something. His lies slipped out of him easier than a gumdrop out of a candy machine. They were lies, yes, but candy in a sense that gave people just enough, and exactly what they wanted to hear, though. Even with his supposed mistake with the penguins-turning-into-monsters thing he managed to do before he met me, I couldn't understand why nobody had connected the dots of how weird—how incredibly strange their precious Dr. Brine was.

Hearing Rayonna calling out to us, and being merely present, sent me into a momentary petrified state. It was like I was caught in the act again, my body tense as I listened through the crowd beyond us and heard her heels clicking on the concrete.

Turning around to face her took so much effort.

"Ah, it's so good to see you!" Rayonna said, finally arriving in front of us. She extended her hand out to me first, to which I kindly obliged with a handshake. She'd extend her hand out to Dave next, causing me to wince as she grabbed hold of his extended palm.

"It's good to see you too!" Dave chimed. "How would you like to proceed with the interview?"

"I was thinking we could head to a local coffee shop," Rayonna responded, although her eyes shifted to her hands momentarily as she observed Dave's stupid slime that had gotten on her. An ever-so-slight frown overcame her mouth as she attempted to wrap her mind around it, said, "Are you all right, Dr. Brine? You seem very sweaty… even through your gloves."

 _Oh no,_ I thought, my eyes widening as the only external indication that I had grown uneasy.

"Yeah, it's a… err, skin condition," Dave replied, catching his brief stuttering before it got to awkward, and recovered quickly. "The medical community says it's normal, albeit a rare condition. Not to worry!"

"You poor dear!" Rayonna responded, her concerned and slightly grossed out gestures from before changing dramatically with Dave's new information. "Even in the cold like this? How unfortunate!"

"Yes, yes, I know…" Dave dived straight into the act. "But it doesn't stop me from doing my work! Important work, you see, so there's no time to rest!"

"That sounds like the iconic Dr. Octavius Brine!" Rayonna cheered. "How about we get straight to business then and head out? I'm sure you two have plans for tonight. I don't want to keep you long."

"Indeed." Dave nodded. "Let me go real quick to my limo and pick up the papers I wanted to show you. I have some great information on the work I've been doing, and future work I've been planning for everyone!"

"All right, sounds great," Rayonna responded.

Dave bowed out and disappeared down the street, meeting with the limo to grab hold of his papers as Rayonna momentarily shifted her attention to me. "So how's it going for you, Mrs. Brine? Oh, wait, you guys haven't officially tied the knot yet… which brings me to ask, because I absolutely cannot help it: when's the wedding?"

"Ummm…" I murmured. I wasn't expecting Rayonna to turn the conversation into _that_ topic so quickly. I felt my heart thunk a few times as I tried to spill out a lie myself. "We still haven't planned for it yet, unfortunately. We've been so busy, you see…"

Okay so that wasn't actually a _lie._

"You two, I swear!" Rayonna shook her head sympathetically, making a _tisk-tisk_ sound with her lips. "Always putting your work to help society before yourselves—it's so heroic!"

"Yeeeee," I responded, my stupid ass reply a contrast from my words from before. Yes, how _heroic_. How _selfless_. What were we even doing anyway, other than covering our own asses from North Wind? Absolutely nothing, that's what! Dave said it himself not more than a week earlier. I felt like a clown standing in front of this lady. Like all the other humans in the world, she was so oblivious—mesmerized by the show of goodness and brilliance of Brine and his lovely little fiancée.

"Speaking of your future wedding, I'd love to have the honor of reporting some of it, if you'd allow me!" Rayonna continued. "It would also be a great opportunity for me to allow you to try my makeup and beauty line of products, which I'm sure you've seen advertised around on the billboards and online."

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I've seen them," I replied, shuffling my feet momentarily before I broke myself out of my diverting gestures. "I guess I could use what you have—"

I felt like I wasn't even able to continue my sentence when Rayonna suddenly seemed to shift from reporter to saleswoman within the blink of an eye. "That would be wonderful if you'd allow me! I'd have you looking so good they won't even recognize you!" she said with glee.

I fake-laughed then, merely going with the flow of the conversation, said, "Really now? Well, I don't know if I want people to not recognize me, you know?"

"It's just a way of speaking, per say," Rayonna replied, "but you will look fabulous!" She suddenly reached out, taking a strand of my hair that was sitting on my shoulder, as if inspecting it. "I can bring some volume to your locks, too. Believe me, it'll look great! I'm the master of transformation! You give me anything and I'll make the girl look like a queen!"

I retracted myself, ever so slightly, but not defensive enough, at least as much as I wanted to. I was still in acting mode, and was trying to keep the peace, although deep in my chest I was getting a gnawing feeling, like dread. "That's great and all," I started calmly, "but… I think my hair looks fine."

"Please! You're being too modest!" Rayonna said, her voice rising in pitch as she started to get further into her thing. "You are going to be the bride of _the_ Octavius Brine, world renowned geneticist! You have to absolutely look the part. It's going to be the wedding of the century!"

My brain was filling with all sorts of questions and emotions on top of what I had already been feeling that I wasn't sure how to filter through them all. While I was managing to keep my outward appearance and persona neutral, the exact opposite was going on internally, to put it frank.

_Did I really look like shit!?_

I suddenly felt embarrassed, but an embarrassment that had been obscured from me for… I don't know, Lord knows how long. The last time someone bashed my appearance was when I was in early High School, and some French guy was trying to sell me expensive 'all natural concealer'. To a literal child. But now, I didn't have the 'child' aspect about myself to divert to. Instead I was a grown ass adult, being attacked by Ms. Rayonna: beautiful journalist and product creator. And yet, just like back then, it somehow was getting to me. I never considered myself ugly, so while I still had that idea that I had nothing to worry about as reinforcement, her words were punching at these justifications quicker than my confidence could speak up.

"Here I am!" Dave's voice pelted into my mind, pulling me out of my loathing, and back to reality like a hand reaching into the depths and rescuing me before the sharks could devour me. "I'm ready to head out when you are, Ms. Desiree!"

In his grasp he carried his research papers, all neatly stacked and prepared for the interview. I eyed his papers again, this time with more intent as I tried to make out what some of it was saying, but he seemed to move too abruptly for me to do so.

"Ah, perfect," Rayonna responded, shifting her attention instantly, and leaving the conversation she had been having with me in the dust. "You guys can ride with me in my car. It won't take too long to get to the shop."

We ventured off then. Going from point A to point B was sort of a blur as my mind seemed to buzz off once again, shifting constantly through different thoughts and feelings as if it was still trying to grasp if the lone conversation I had just had with this lady was even real. Before I knew it even, I had disassociated so much that I realized at the last moment that we had stopped in front of Rayonna's car. The car beeped as Rayonna pressed the unlock button on her keys.

The black, sophisticated car looked as if it just came out of the car wash, so much so that I could not only see my reflection in its dark paint, but the stationary parade's end behind me. My face looked distorted due to the curvature of the vehicle, my reflection and my world behind me stretched and skewed as well.

"Well, hop in! Maybe we can make it for the coffee happy hour!" Rayonna said, and sat down in front of the wheel. Dave ventured into the backseat, scooting all the way over for me to follow in after him.

After the doors shut whatever was leftover from our time at the parade, sounds, smells and all, finally cut ties with us as we drove off. The car drive itself was very quiet, with only the gentle hum of the engine keeping the silence at bay. Dave soon spoke up as the car picked up speed, though.

"So, how's the reporting going?" he asked. "Any new and interesting things that haven't hit the press yet?"

"There's always something interesting going on," Rayonna said, chuckling like she was in disbelief. "If you've been in this career as long as I have you'll pretty much hear all kinds of stories."

"Enlighten us, then," I said flatly, my way of saying it uncontrollable in the sense that I was still out of it.

"Well there's the regular old stuff…" she said, "you know, reports of this new business opening, this person getting arrested or shot, blah blah."

"Oh wow," I responded sarcastically, but my way of commenting seemed to fly right over Rayonna and instead must've been interpreted as me being engaged in gossip.

"That's not even the start of it!" she said. "Like, there's been some talk about aliens recently. Something about seeing ships in the skies that disappear without a trace."

"What?" Dave asked, mild concern filling his expression. "Ummm… what's being said about these things?"

My eyes shifted over towards Dave then, my focus settling now more on him than my inward thoughts of whatever idiocy Rayonna was getting at. Because this made him seem weary, it made me so to.

"I'm getting reports of large UFOs in the sky all across the northern hemisphere." Rayonna reached into the pocket of her blazer then, grabbing her phone and started to skim through a few of her personal photos. Eventually she got to what looked like an amateur photograph of… well, _something_ , and handed her phone to us in the back, to which I took a hold of it, and stationed it in between Dave and I so we could ponder it in unison.

Looking at the picture myself, it was insanely hard to comprehend. I almost wanted to chunk the phone back at Rayonna and accuse her of trying to pull our leg, but the longer I stared at it the more interesting it became. The shot looked up at the sky, amidst the clouds something big, but more than half of it looked like it was fading in and out of existence or whatever.

There was one thing I could confirm though: it wasn't one of Dave's.

"When was this picture taken?" Dave continued to probe.

I handed the phone back to Rayonna.

"About a week ago, I'd say," Rayonna replied. "Lots of folks say they've seen and heard weird stuff going on. And when I say lots, I really mean maybe no more than a few hundred. Mostly smaller, rural town people. It's enough of a voice to catch my ears though! If it's a story worth telling, I'm on it!"

"Hmmm," I murmured, my fingers strumming the car seat as I contemplated. For some reason her mentioning 'all stories worth telling' made me feel a bit more off about her. Not only because of how she bashed me before, but now because of her stereotypical story teller/investigator vibe. For some reason my already stirring brain spat out the time a few days ago I saw stuff online about Dave. From that point I started connecting the dots…

Could Rayonna be the one behind that post? Was she the one that knew Dave was an octopus!?

I felt myself go stiff again as I listened helplessly to the ending conversion, my internal voice hollering at me for not giving this lady a piece of my mind. Luckily self-restraint managed to keep me glued together.

"Isn't that interesting... you do have to keep us updated on what else you find out about these… aliens," Dave said.

"Oh, don't you worry, _I will_ ," Rayonna responded.

 _Was that a threat?_ I thought, my brows curving in defensive frustration, if that was even a thing. Indignation. Frustrated and ready to fight? Yeah, that felt like me, all right.

A few more blocks were passed when the car slowly drifted to the side of the road, parallel parking next to what was obviously the coffee shop Rayonna had talked about. We collectively got out of the car and went inside the shops doors, a little chime at the front ringing our entry to notify the baristas in the back.

One of the boys working in the back looked up as we came in, said, "Welcome! We're serving Caffeine Hour, happy hour for coffee lovers—OH MY GOD IT'S DR. BRINE!"

This instantly made the other baristas head's spring up like daisies from behind the counter, their eyes glued to the three of us standing there as the door finally had shut softly behind us, striking the bells one last time.

Brushing it off like usual, we made our way to one of the tables, sitting down to get comfortable as Dave began to fumble through his papers to prepare for what he was going to say. Rayonna likewise got out a pen and notebook to write down what she needed.

"Okay, so!" Rayonna finally said, clasping her hands together, and then settled them down on the table in front of her. "Where should we even begin? I'm sure you have a lot to tell me. You've been so busy, so I'm sure whatever work you have up your sleeve is just as busy and brilliant."

"You could say that," Dave said, grinning crookedly. "As you may already be aware, a lot of my previous work was directed at helping those poor _wretched_ penguins…" His teeth grit together momentarily as he suppressed his discomfort, but continued on like a champ. "I was trying to figure out what on earth happened to them that made them into those… green things."

"I remember that," Rayonna said with a pout in her lips. "Those poor babies."

"Yes, _poor babies_ ," Dave said with a seer, although he twisted his tone into his next sentence to help deter any suspicion. "I was so… oh so angry! Yes, furious with what happened!" He squeezed his papers tightly from his frustration, wrinkling some of the pages, but settled after a moment. "After that, you know, things got worse. They started getting kidnapped again. I know some people were worried about catching the criminals but I was also focusing on why—how the penguins turned into green little horrible beasts when this first began."

Rayonna shifted in her seat as she sat forward, curiosity catching her. "Go on," she said.

"Through my genetics research I have been divulging into what exactly may have made them change. Was it a natural cause? Was it something that was done to them?"

"Interesting," Rayonna said, scribbling something down on her paper then. " _A natural or unnatural cause?_ That's a good beginning sentence when I report this."

"Indeed," Dave said, nodding his head. He reached into his stack and took out a few papers, handing it over to Rayonna. "You'll be able to read my theories here, arguing both cases. On one hand, it could be a natural phenomenon, maybe penguins are just ghastly pieces of—"

"Dr. Brine, can I get you anything?" It was the boy from before. He was standing next to the table now, having crept over as we were talking.

"I'll have a mocha," I said. "Extra chocolate shots." Lord knows I was going to need not necessarily my dose of caffeine, but of chocolate to boost my serotonin. My eyes lowered to the table then as my mind continued to spiral around my personal epiphany. I had been confused and a bit angry before, but now I was full blown worried. I kept thinking, _God, I hope Dave knows what he's doing_. What if this lady was the kind of reporter that could read right through you? If she knew Dave was an octopus, she could be looking for any verbal cue— _anything_ to prove she's right.

"I'll have your blonde roast. Black is fine," Rayonna said next.

 _Of course she'd order black,_ I thought. I don't know why I thought that to be honest, but for some reason I was reaching for anything at that point to prove that Rayonna was against us.

The boy took our orders, and then looked at Dave, who he had been aching to help since he walked into the café. "And you, doctor?" he said, smiling sweetly yet excitedly.

Dave looked over to me, unsure of what to get I suppose.

"Just get a water," I immediately said. Not knowing if Dave had ever had anything remotely like coffee before, I felt this was a safe answer. We were trying to stay on our toes after all.

"No, I can't possibly!" Dave said. "I want coffee like you guys!"

"Okay, so do you like bitter or sweet?" the barista asked, attempting to help.

"Sweet! Most definitely!" Dave replied, his attention shifting over to the barista by now.

"We have our seasonal flavors right now that are pretty sweet…"

"I'll have that then!"

"Okay, so… the pumpkin spice latte or…"

"Yes, that!"

The kid took the order, bowed out, and disappeared behind the counter to start our orders. While the café already smelled like coffee, the start of the baristas grinding the coffee grounds emphasized that smell, a mix of sweetness and spices being added to the air the longer this process went on. I took a deep breath. Savoring the little things like this helped me along in this seemingly everlasting conversation that was at a constant battle for my already sporadic attention.

"So…" Rayonna began again, tapping her pen on the table, then after a few strikes stopped, and started talking. "Tell me about this research in greater detail. Out of either of your theories, which one do you think is more probable?"

"To tell you the truth, as a scientist, I can't say," Dave said, rather smartly. "I don't draw towards one theory or another until it proves itself. Both of these theories are very much still on the table and being worked on. What I can tell you is this: the penguins should be fine."

"Oh, well that's wonderful!" Rayonna said. "I'm glad to hear that… I suppose the next step once we get this all figured out would be to find the criminals behind this. They stole the penguins twice now, so it's something to worry about. After all, if this was an unnatural phenomenon, you have to argue that the unnatural aspect would point to the penguins being actively turned this way from an outside force. Like… these criminals were the ones that did that to them."

She paused, resuming her pen tapping again on the table. This time the taps were annoying me, each _putt-putt_ echoing in my subconsciousness like small rocks being thrown at a window.

"Nobody has asked you though," Rayonna started up, "when you rescued those penguins and brought them back to us, did you _see_ the perpetrators?"

I swallowed. Her eyes were stuck to Dave, quizzing him, attempting to read him. She still had a soft smile on her face, this gesture adding to the fact that I now saw nothing but a conniving journalist sticking her nose into something she shouldn't be. The fact that I was seeing her as if she were looking through the veil, so to speak, was freaking me out to a point that from under the table my hands were starting to bundle into fists, all kinds of emotions again returning to me as a fight or flight response seemed to overtake me as my heart pounded.

"I—" Dave was about to speak, but before he managed to get out another peep the barista from before had returned, our coffee neatly prepared in cute mugs and saucers. My mocha was decorated with coffee art in the shape of a heart, and Dave's latte decorated likewise. Meanwhile, Rayonna's was left alone, being black and all.

"Here is your order!" the barista said, setting our coffees in front of us. "If there is anything else you need, please let me know!"

"Thank you," I said meekly, which was only because I was fighting my internal struggle with my own emotions.

The barista walked away then, leaving Rayonna, Dave and I stagnant in her last question. Dave, however, was taking his sweet ol' time replying, lifting the mug then and sniffed the beverage intently. "Oh, it really does smell like pumpkin and spice!" Dave said, grinning. "I've never had coffee before!"

"Really?" Rayonna asked, her pen tapping stopping momentarily.

"He's joking," I said, chiming in to help divert any suspicion that I so deeply felt was upon us. "He usually prefers tea, is all."

When I had said this, Dave had taken a sip of the coffee. He smacked his mouth for a second, tasting the drink more intently as he took a moment to contemplate its flavor. After bit he smiled, took another sip, swallowed, then said, "This is lovely! Who would've thought that putting a squash and some spices into coffee would be so delicious?"

"You underestimate the power of the pumpkin spice, Dave," I said, chuckling in attempts to pull myself out of my own rut and to appreciate Dave's… well, appreciation of drinking coffee. I couldn't help but smile and laugh mildly again when he took another sip of coffee, and then another.

"Anyway, Dr. Brine, can we continue with your point?" Rayonna said.

Her pen resumed tapping.

"Oh, yes… hold on one moment..." Dave muttered, holding his opposite hand that wasn't clutching the mug out towards Rayonna with a finger pointed upward, his rather rude gesture hinting to give him a few more moments. Suddenly, the sound of him sucking the rest of the empty mug spilled into our ears, followed by Dave abruptly setting down the mug back onto the saucer. "Another!" he cried, turning around towards the barista back at the counter, giving him a snap with his fingers. "It was delicious! I'd like another!"

"Right on, Dr. Brine!" the barista called out, and immediately I heard the staff start up the coffee machine again as another series of coffee ground smells overcame the air.

Rayonna cleared her throat. "Dr. Brine?" she hummed.

"Yes! Sorry about that," Dave said. "Now where was I? Oh, yes, the perpetrators." He shuffled in his seat a moment as he sat forward, his hands now freed to exaggerate a story. "So there I was, in my submarine trying to find those poor, poor penguins. I had been going to great lengths to find them after the mass amount of kidnappings from the first series of incidents, and wanted so desperately to bring them back safe and sound."

"That's very sweet of you," Rayonna commented. "You have a lot of empathy and a lot of courage to do what you did."

"Thank you," Dave said. "So there I was, out looking for the penguins. I found them far, far away, cooped up, now suddenly horrible ugly green monsters—"

"Here is your latte, Dr. Brine!" the barista called suddenly, tearing Dave once again from his oncoming bullshit tale. _That was fast._

Dave turned his head, and outstretched his hands as his 'fingers' twiddled around while the coffee was set in front of him, this hovering only stopping once the mug and saucer clicked atop of the table.

The boy had turned around at the same time Dave had grabbed hold of the latte, Dave again taking sips as he mumbled under his breath, "Mmm, this is good…."

"Dr. Brine, your story?" Rayonna inquired again.

"PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE!" Dave suddenly gasped after his series of sips, I realizing with wide eyes as yet again he had topped this serving off too. It seemed the second mug of caffeine was finally getting to him. I suppose I should be thankful that this was a latte, and not a harder dosed caffeine drink, but at his point I was starting to realize it probably wouldn't have made a difference, because Dave was starting to talk louder now.

"SO ANYWAY I WAS OFF TO SAVE THE PENGUINS," Dave repeated, loudly, excitedly; his gestures of emphasis to his story were bigger and more exaggerated now.

One of my hands had slowly unclutched itself from its fist stance from under the table, and my palm had climbed up to my face, my way of deterring embarrassment. At least I wasn't feeling as bad about Rayonna anymore.

"I FOUND THEM OUT THERE IN THE WILDERNESS, BUT I DIDN'T SEE ANY PERPETRATORS. I KNEW I HAD TO GET THEM OUT OF THERE THOUGH, SO I GOT THEM ALL IN MY SUBMARINE AND HEADED BACK TO NEW YORK!"

"Ah, so that's how it happened," Rayonna replied. It sounded like she didn't mind Dave's yelling. "I can't believe you did all that by yourself, you should have called for backup."

"I DO WHAT I DO BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT PEOPLE," Dave said.

My eye peeked from between my fingers once he said this. That wasn't a lie… I mean, Dave did always say he loved the attention of humans. I just wasn't sure where his logic was when he was talking about returning penguins back to them as monsters, knowing good and well that the humans would hate them for it.

But then again, that was the point.

The sound of Rayonna's pen tapping had stopped again, being exchanged for the faint scribbles and scratches of her beginning to write on her notebook. After a few sentences had quickly been struck on the white paper, she paused, taking her mug with one hand and took a sip of her coffee herself.

Out of habit I found I had reached for my mug and did the same, although with all this peer pressure it seemed to get to Dave.

"CAN I HAVE ANOTHER—"

"Octavius, no!" I fussed suddenly, the mocha almost falling out of my mouth I had reacted so quickly. Once I realized what I had done, my eyes shifted over to Rayonna, then back at Dave again. I cleared my throat, adjusting my tone, then said, "You know how coffee keeps you awake at night, sweetie." I smiled that weird fake white-girl smile, obviously sarcasm and irritation bubbling in me in order to send this signal to Dave as silently and as effectively as I could that he needed to stop immediately before he made a fool of himself.

"Oh no, don't tell me Octavius has insomnia," Rayonna said. "I didn't realize that."

I jumped to the answer before Dave. "Yeah, he's… ummm, had a hard time with his sleep schedule. Being so busy and all can take a toll on your mind just as much as your body. I tell him to give himself a break sometimes, but you know how it is." I started to take a sip of my mocha again.

"Insomnia is very prevalent, you know," Rayonna commented. "But you are absolutely right. Someone as hard working as Dr. Brine should be also focusing on his well-being." She chuckled mildly, and then winked. "But I'm sure you work your magic on him, if you know what I mean."

I did a spit take, almost losing my hold of the mug. _Was I ever going to get to drink my freaking coffee!?_

"Are you okay?" Rayonna asked, concerned.

I proceeded coughing like a freaking idiot. "I'm—I'm fine," I stuttered once I started to regain my composure. "I'm sorry, uhhh, I don't know why that happened." But of course I knew why that happened. This lady, I swear! I knew she was a journalist but I guess they really are as nosy as they say they are. I wanted oh so deeply to come out to her right then and there that I was ace, and Dave and I absolutely do not do _that_ , but I felt publicly making that kind of statement right now wouldn't be the best for my poor introverted self.

Ugh, maybe someday, but whatever.

Rayonna looked down at her watch, eyeing the time before she spoke up. "I don't want to keep you two for very long, like I promised," she said. "I feel like I already have a lot of insight on Dr. Brine's research though, so if you want to call it quits I understand."

"IT WAS A LOVELY INTERVIEW, MS. DESIREE," Dave called out, standing up from his seat. MY LOVELY FIANCEE AND I HAVE A THANKSGIVING FEAST TO ATTEND ALL THE WAY IN HOUSTON, SO IT'S PROBABLY FOR THE BEST."

"Thank you so much again for you time," Rayonna said warmly. "I will definitely keep you updated when I publish this. I want to help you out anyway I can with your pledge drives to support your work, and your company."

"Thank you, Rayonna," I said, attempting to smile back, but while it may have been a passable gesture from the outside I felt like it wasn't. Yes, first the parade, then the interview, and now I was going to my parents' house. For the entire weekend. Yay. Not only that, but this interview was probably going to hover over me the entire time.

I sat up and dusted myself off, taking notice that I had some coffee stains on my clothes. My eyes fell eventually to the mug of coffee I barely was able to touch.

"I'll take this to-go, please," I told the barista, then found my gaze again slipping toward the clock at the upper left wall behind the counter.

God, this had already been a long day, and it was only _noon_.


	6. Thanksgiving Dinner

"Are you sure you wouldn't like a ride, though?" Rayonna said pleasantly. She had just started up her car, her windows rolled down to where she could look at us, waiting only a second after the question left her mouth for a response.

"Our limo is coming for us, but thank you for the offer," I said quickly, faking another smile. I was so tired of keeping up with these business pleasantries, but training myself in the 'act' was at least coming a bit easier to me, my sheer force of will managing to outmatch my emotions.

"Well, goodbye for now then! You two have a lovely Thanksgiving!" Rayonna said. "I'll let you know when the story is up! In the meantime you guys feel free to fill me in on any details that need to be in the know." She seemed to focus on me then. "That wedding is something I _have_ to know about when you get to planning for it!"

The shiny car's windows rolled up, for a moment again the dark windows reflecting a distorted image of myself, tired and holding onto my to-go mocha, stretching my face and the building behind me to make me look taller than I really was. It wasn't really until she drove away that I exhaled, finally then, and only then, allowing myself to let my guard down and release the muscles in my arms and legs from its perpetual tightness through the interview. I had to take extra care to realize that I had been clenching my teeth the entire time too, and took a moment to let that go as well, realizing afterwards that the act of simply sitting and listening the entire time had exhausted me beyond belief.

I took another guzzle of my to-go mocha. Lord knows I was going to need it!

"ONWARD TO HOUSTON!" Dave yelled. He was still yelling even in casual conversation. I had no idea how normal it was for an octopus to drink coffee, but I took note at that moment to prevent it from ever happening again. Who knows how long this was going to continue.

I squinted, said, "Dave, please, keep your voice down."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DEAREST?" he replied.

A few pedestrians across the street had looked our way, although I'm pretty sure it was because of the yelling and not so much as who was doing the yelling.

"I mean you need to calm down. Have an inside voice," I tried to say calmly.

"BUT WE'RE OUTSIDE!" Dave exhaled. He lifted one of his arms in the air, the other clutching his papers, and made a twirl as one of his heels clung to the concrete. "OH JOYOUS DAY! EVERYTHING HAS BEEN WORKING OUT SO WONDERFULLY!" He took a deep breath of air, as if smelling the toxic gas fumed New York air was something to behold, and then lowered his arm, placing his hand to his ear to trigger his headset to hail our driver. "COME AND GET US!" he yelled into the mic. Standing next to him, I could hear static coming from the small headpiece, and a sudden, quick gobble of surprise. I'm sure our driver wasn't too happy about that.

"Okay, Dave, let's focus…" I said. "One: get back to Octo Corp, grab a jet, and two: get to Houston to have Thankgiving dinner with my parents." Speaking my plans into existence helped me to cope with what I was going to have to do, and basically just helped me get my shit in order in general.

At that moment I saw our driver rolling up, the limo taking the spot where Rayonna's car had been parked before minutes earlier. I quickly had stepped forward, let myself into the limo as Dave followed after. He placed his papers in first, and then came in afterwards, one leg stretching in awkwardly at first as he hunkered into the limo to get himself seated.

I found my eyes glancing beyond him, as if looking to see if anyone passing by had seen his weird stretch thing, but when nobody seemed to bat an eye, I lowered my gaze again and took another shot of my coffee. "Hurry and shut the door," I said without thinking. My foot started tapping the floor uncontrollably.

After that, yet another limo drive came and went like normal, although this time I felt like time was passing me by quickly now. The passing cars of the crowded New York streets or the tall buildings didn't even make an impression on me as much as my perpetual brooding. My thoughts jumped from Rayonna, my hair being flat and me looking like shit (aka what I got out of Rayonna roasting me), and to that stupid ass article about Dave being a freaking octopus, back and forth, over and over again like a skipping record.

I had managed to keep my wits about me for weeks now, but good God, I guess I had finally lost it. On top of it, there was still work to do. This time it just so happened to be work in regards to keeping Dave looking like a normal, law-abiding person in front of my parents.

Before I knew it the limo doors locks clicked, catching my attention. Our driver had opened them us. Dave grabbed hold of his papers, immediately stepped out to hand them back down to Mariah, the henchman who had brought them out initially. I remained in the vehicle for a moment longer to see as he turned back around to wait for me, although this kindly gesture lasting literally less than a second before he started tripping out, hollering, "MMMm! AHHHH!" in the air, but in a way that was again a weird pleasantry reaction to enjoying the outside or whatever.

In comparison to his absolute hyper persona and quick exit of the limo, I crawled out slowly, being extra careful to not spill my leftover mocha. Once my feet hit the ground you could say it might as well have been the literal equivalent to hitting the ground running, because the next thing I knew Dave had sprinted off into the building, hollering, "YAY!" as I tried running after, although my run was more like a lax trot as I attempted to continuously keep my mocha from spilling.

I felt like a vein could pop out of my head I was getting so irritated. I wasn't mad at Dave so much as I was hideously growing frustrated with how fast he was heading into this weekend, both literally and metaphorically.

"Dave! Hold up!" I yelled, although I'm sure by the time I managed to fuss at him he was already halfway through the building and heading toward the back garages.

Giving up that instant I began sauntering after him instead of trying to run, taking sips of my coffee as I made my way through the building. A few henchmen were giving me nods and salutes as I passed, I acknowledging them with the same gestures for a time.

Once I made it to the large garage area, I was met instantly with a crowding of the henchman, Penny's team, consisting of Kenny, RJ, Jacob, and a few newly assigned individuals surrounding Dave, who was standing in front of one of his purple personal jets that had been prepared for us. The garage itself, however, might as well be referred to as a giant empty facility. Without Tetradnaught in it, and Dave's other contraptions and machines, it felt barren, only a few other jets and helicopters taking space. It was a wonder at one point that this place had been filled up with so much shit, but since North Wind couldn't get hold of Dave at the time, they did a pretty good job of confiscating all the other stuff.

"Ahhhh! THANK you so MUCH!" Dave had said. His voice was starting to calm down a _bit_ now; maybe his system got rid of the caffeine faster than a regular persons, I don't know. Maybe the run was necessary for him to get over himself. "We're going to HEAD OFF NOW, gentleman—and lady." He nodded toward little Penny. "I will leave you, TEAM, with some of my last orders before I depart for the weekend. Tell Elizabeth: banks are prepared for our deposit soon, so make sure those accounting papers are ready by the end of the weekend to submit. Tell Gemma: ward off any other North Wind attempts. If that owl is still spying on us then I want to know when and where, too. As a matter-of-fact, inform the entire building to keep a hard eye on North Wind activity while I'm gone. If there's any trouble you call me."

Garbles responded to him, all at once, but after a few seconds everyone managed to get their questions in order, Penny being the first one to ask after a moment of collaboration.

"Oh, Penny, how kind of you to offer!" Dave said.

"What did she say?" I asked out of habit. I was tired, yes, but I still wanted to know what was going on.

"She's offering her and Kenny as escorts," Dave said. "They are in charge of building my machines anyway, particularly Penny here as you know, so she's as skilled and safe as can be as a pilot."

I thought for a moment about the offer. There was a brief moment that I worried about taking the henchmen with us to Houston, but I started to justify it soon after. Having them around would be safer for both us and as general lookout. Not to mention the last time we had flown off somewhere we had gotten stranded, and I was absolutely not putting myself in that situation again. Also Penny flying made me feel safer anyway, since you know, I was also in a plane crash before.

Ugh. _How am I alive?_

"If they come they can't come in my parents' house," I stated aloud. "No offense, guys, but I'm still like… one-hundred percent sure my parents—and the rest of my family for that matter—will flip out if they saw a bunch of octopuses running around. Not to mention Kenny here _chloroformed_ my cousin. I'd like to keep that as a bad dream on her part and not give her any idea that was an actual thing that happened."

The team chuckled in response to my comment, although Kenny remained stoic and serious as usual.

"That settles it then!" Dave said. "Penny, Kenny—get to starting the jet! We'll take off in a jiffy. The rest of you, stay on your arms! We'll be back Sunday before sunset."

Sunday. Four days from now.

Things fled into motion upon Dave's orders. The rest of the team scattered into different areas of the garage, one of the henchmen initiating the garage doors to open. I felt a sense of anticipation run through me, much like when I took off with Tetradnaught to fight North Wind months ago, the last time these same doors opened. This wasn't exactly a life or death situation that I was about to head into, but I suppose because I had already hyped myself up for this, along with my day recently ending up like a turd into the toilet with the whole Rayonna thing, I simply wasn't vibing with it.

Regardless of my feelings, I took another guzzle of my mocha, emptying the to-go mug, and then crushed it in my palm. Sitting up properly came naturally after that as I shifted myself back into the swing of things, tossed the crushed mug to the side (to which a henchman caught it as he passed by) and began striding up to the jet with Dave.

I could hear Mario's voice echo in my mind: _Here we goooo!_

It was time to bury my discomfort and go along with things like normal. My feelings would fade eventually anyway.

_Maybe._

. . . . . . .

Mouth agape and eyes wide, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The little house my parents' used to live in didn't quite compare to the absolute breathtaking beauty of a home I was coming home to now. It wasn't a mansion by any means, but it was grander than anything I could have imagined for my mom and dad to own.

The comfortable home was built on a large acreage of land, the house itself built as an intertwining of both modern and rustic design. They said they were waiting to find the right house, but now that I saw it for myself the place justified the many months of their searching.

At both sides of the door were two large pumpkins, and the fall wreath I had made with my mom many years ago, old, but still beautiful, hanging on the white door. We barely had a moment to look at it though before the front door opened, my mother standing there as she opened her arms wide, a smile to match on her face once she saw me. Her presence immediately filled me with a sense of calm, despite how the entire flight here had been a test on my sanity.

"Kailey, you're home!" she cheered. "Darren! Oh, look, she's here!"

I could hear a cluster of voices beyond them and the clink of forks and plates. A good handful of cars were parked outside where we were standing, so I knew going in was going to be interesting at this point. But keeping up with my prior efforts, I attempted to go in bravely to meet with them.

I heard someone in the back of the house yell in a heavy southern accent, "Darren, your wife said Kailey's here!"

It was my grandma. _Shit._

"What?" I heard my dad yell.

"Go answer the door, Dad!" That time it was my brother. I was internally praying at that point, _God, please let this weekend go well._

"Can't you see I'm busy?!" my dad huffed irritably. More clanks, then the sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway, soon my dad peering from the door next to my mother.

By this time Dave and I had walked up to the porch, instantly my mom meeting me with a hug. I watched out of the corners of my eyes as Dave shook my dad's hand. I winced upon seeing this, agony briefly stripping me of my moment before my mom pulled me instantly out of it with her oncoming words.

"I've missed you so much!" Mom cooed, hugging me more tightly for a moment before she let me go to take a look at me. "I'm so glad you and Octavius could make it. Your dad had told me that you were busy so I wasn't entirely sure if you would even come…"

"We're always busy," I said, "so it's nice to get a break."

I wasn't lying, really. While the fact was that this Thanksgiving weekend was going to be a chore, on the other hand, I absolutely missed my mom. My eyes stung briefly from held back tears for a moment as I contemplated how long it had been since I'd seen her. So much had happened since that night. "I can't believe you managed to find a place like this," I added.

"Oh, believe me it took forever to find the right one!" Mom replied. "You won't believe how many homes we toured. With the money Octavius gave us we could have picked any ol' fancy house we wanted, but none of them felt like the one, you know?"

"Yeah," I acknowledged, understanding her justifications quite easily. We had been stuck in this kind of situation before when I was still in college, looking for houses, but one thing led to another, and it never really happened due to money and jobs… it was always _something_ that held us back.

"Come in and see the family," I heard my dad say then. "Dinner is almost ready, so make yourselves comfortable."

"Dad made the turkey again, but don't let him tell you he made everything else," Mom said, rolling her eyes. "He always likes to take the credit for work we both put into."

Dad seemed to ignore her, or maybe just didn't hear her, I don't know (never found out if he was going deaf or that's just were I got my ADHD from), but we naturally followed after him inside the house. Walking down the hall, the wood that made a majority of the structure of the walls and floors seemed bright despite its rustic brown color. Windows were placed around in ways that allowed the evening sun in just right to make the passing living room and hallway glow.

I smelt my parents' Thanksgiving dinner, the typical array of dressing, green beans, mac and cheese, and Dad's unique turkey placing me in a mental time rift of the sorts. All previous Thanksgivings seemed to meld together from my old house to create the sensation and reality I was walking into then and there. It was all so familiar, but all so new at the same time, and not just because I was in a new house, but because I was walking in with Dave—err, in this case Octavius; the famous geneticist.

The instant we turned the corner into the dining room everyone turned their heads. I felt my face flush hot with a wave of heat when I realized exactly how many people had come to this new and improved family Thanksgiving dinner.

"It's Kailey!" my grandma cheered happily.

Yes, my grandma, my grandpa, my aunt from my Dad's side, one cousin and her husband and baby, my great aunt and her husband from my Mom's side, my cousin Leah, my brother who I hadn't seen in who knows how long, and his girlfriend, and… _Steven was here!?_

"Kailey, OH MY GOD!" Steven said, jumping up from his seat next to my brother from the far end of the table and rushed over my direction. My grandma was starting to stand up too at that time, but far more slowly.

"Steven? What are you doing here?" I said, cringing mildly. I was anticipating him to fangirl again, yes, but I also was uncomfortably aware that he was probably about to do the same fangirling as before but in front of everybody.

"Your brother and mom invited me," Steven replied. "Besides, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see my friend again, not to mention have Thanksgiving dinner with none other than _the_ Octavius Brine!"

"Your brother finally was able to get away from his work in Michigan," Mom commented. "It was a chore getting him to come down here, but once he agreed he was excited. He wanted to invite Steven here, so I just said the more the merrier. We can hold a lot more guest now!"

"You didn't invite Uncle Pat?" I asked sarcastically.

"Oh hell no," my mom replied, although caught herself and rephrased the response. "I mean, _no_. He's not invited here anymore."

Grandma had finally walked up to us at that point, said, "Aren't you going to give your grandma a hug?"

"You didn't have to get up," I said awkwardly, giving into her request and gave her a hug. After we embraced that was when the focus fell on Dave. Well, that was putting it mildly. The focus of the entire family was then on Dave—completely and wholly. _God have mercy on me, please._

"So tell me, how is the wedding plans?" my grandma asked. _Seriously is that the only question on people's minds?!_

"Yes, tell us the good stuff!" Steven said happily. "Ahhh, I'm so excited my friend is going to be married to you, Dr. Brine!"

"Call me Octavius, everyone," Dave said, smiling proudly. "I've told Kailey's parents' and Leah here before, but we're all going to be family. No need for professionalism here. As for our wedding, we still do not have any plans, but hopefully once we get going with our income we'll have the time to get started."

Steven was starting to melt at that moment, his eyes filling with tears. Seriously though, why was he the one crying? Based on the last time he had seen me with Dave, I guess I should have seen this behavior coming, but I tended to forget that even people I knew fell for and got hyped up about Octavius Brine.

Steven said, "I'm so choked up right now… I don't have any words." He paused for a moment as he took off his glasses and wiped his eye with his sleeve. "Sorry, I just am so… hyped that you guys are a thing. I bet you are excited about planning the wedding though, right, Kailey? With all the press, and the prodigious background of your soon-to-be husband?"

"Ecstatic," I said flatly.

"Show us the ring," Grandma said next. "I haven't seen it yet!"

"Yeah! Show us, Kailey! I want to see again!" Leah echoed from the table.

I just wanted to sit down. My ass was practically begging to be seated, not to mention all this attention from my family about getting married was throwing me off. But, I had planned for this to happen. Of _course_ it was going to happen. Dave had dragged me into the pinnacle of success and renown with him, simply by association, and it wasn't about to be different even in the face of my own family. Maybe part of it was their projected happiness for me, but in the end it was also about _who_ was my fiancé.

Lifting my hand, I complied by showing my grandmother and Steven the ring on my finger. They both gasped in unison.

"It's beautiful, Kailey," my grandma complemented.

"Bloody hell would you look at that rock," Steven commented next.

I felt my dad peeking over my shoulder at that moment, a huff coming from his nose as he looked down at my ring, said, "It looks different than the one he proposed to you with at the dinner this last summer."

 _Shit, he was right._ I felt myself stunned yet again as I struggled to come up with a lie on the spot this time. What was I supposed to tell him? The first ring was a shit-flying tracking device?

Looking up desperately at Dave, all it took was eye contact for him to step in, his continuous casual yet calming smile dissipating the question my dad had put between the lot of us. "I got her a new and better one, that's what," he said. "The first one was beautiful, sure, but it wasn't the _one_. You see, I'm so busy, and I had wanted to give my lovely bride-to-be a ring, so the one you saw me give her at the dinner this last summer was one I had found before I stumbled across this second one. When I saw this one I immediately thought of your daughter… bold, polished, alluring…"

Once he started listing off adjectives to describe me in relation to the ring I felt heat return to my face, my lips moving into a crooked expression of both contemplation and current realization of what he thought of me, mixed with a dash of all this coming out in front of my family. More _awwws_ came from the table, Steven even squeeing in front of me as he watched and listened to Dave talk.

As he talked, however, I managed to stab through my embarrassment and just listen for myself what he was saying, ignoring all the coos and comments around me momentarily.

"Dedicated, sharp, eye-catching, fiery…"

 _Was I everything he said I was?_ I thought. Not really going to sugar coat it, but when we first met we weren't exactly best friends, let alone in love with each other. He had lied to me, used me as live bait for North Wind, put me in dangerous situations, but I also had punched him in the face, kicked him in between the tentacles, screamed and yelled—not really something to describe as polished by any means. To say that our relationship had started out with chaos felt odd in comparison to his description of how he felt of me.

"You know how it is… it takes time to find the one." Dave's words at the end mimicked the conversation I had just had with my mom. "The love of my life and the ring, that is."

"She's the love of his life," Steven gasped airily, his mouth slightly remaining opened afterward.

"How romantic," Grandma said. "See Kailey, I knew you would find a husband. After all that talk about never wanting to get married and all that! Yet here you are, with a man that really truly loves you."

A man. Ha! Yes, Grandma, _a human man_. A ginger, nerd ass, human man doctor. _How in the ever living shits was this even a thing that was real?_

Thank God, because at that moment the sound of the oven timer beeping took over the conversation. I felt my dad shift in his stance behind me, his focus tearing away from me and Dave and to his turkey. "Here it comes, everyone! I'll be out in a second with the carved turkey, and then we can eat," he said.

"About time if you ask me," Grandpa in the back commented, sounding grumpy at first but you could tell upon further inspection that was just his way of joking around. "Darren's cooking is the best."

"Yeah, _Darren's_ cooking," my mom replied aloud sarcastically, her eyes slanting into a glare at my dad as he walked away. "Taking all the credit again, aren't we?" she muttered afterwards.

"Come sit down, Kailey, there's plenty of room here for you two," my grandma invited then. Thankfulness finally manifested itself upon me for Thanksgiving as I realized I was about to sit down. I ended up sitting towards the front end of the table, closest to my parents', with Dave sitting next to me, and lo and behold, Steven next to him.

Steven took out his phone then, and started texting really fast.

"Dude, what are you doing?" I heard my brother say from the other side of Steven.

"I'm tweeting this," Steven replied.

"Oh, tweeting?" Dave suddenly stepped into the conversation, shifting himself in his seat and towards Steven. "The bird website?"

"The bird—umm, yeah, I guess so," Steven replied, perking up from looking at his phone and to Dave, who was not only sitting next to him, but attempting to make conversation. "You use Twitter?" Steven's big blue eyes grew wider at this sudden experience, a sort of anticipation waiting then for Dave to respond.

"I ummm… have an associate that runs a Twitter account with my research institute's namesake, The Brine Institute. I'm thinking of converging it with Octo Corp. But—that's not why I commented. Would you want a selfie to go along with that tweet?"

Steven's mouth opened again, an airy sound escaping the back of his throat in a weird semi-gasp response. This went on for a painfully long time, although I'm sure in the end it was probably only like six seconds long.

I put my hands on my head, leaning against the table as I sighed. _Here it comes_ , I thought.

"I would absolutely love a selfie with you, Dr. Brine!" Steven confirmed in another gasp. "I mean—Octavius! AHHHH!"

"Kids these days and their phones," my grandpa grumbled again from across the table.

I rolled my eyes, not helping myself as I corrected, "We're adults, Grandpa." But after my response came out I unfortunately looked over at Dave and Steven, Steven's arms extended outward as he and Dave smiled for the shot. A flash went off his phone, triggering yet another thought: that was another imagine of Brine being shared into the world that would probably get thousands of likes. Oh boy, was Steven ready for internet popularity?

"Okay everyone!" Dad's voice boomed from the kitchen. Returning back from the open archway, Dad was balancing a huge serving plate of turkey, managing to place it in the middle of the table. Coming after him was my mother, who had gone into the kitchen to retrieve the side dishes, her hands holding the decent sized serving of green beans.

I instantly sat up, offered, "Mom, you want my help?"

"Oh, that would be nice," Mom replied.

It seemed like me offering help caused Dave to jump on the bandwagon, saying, "I'll help as well!"

"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly ask that of you," Mom said. "Kailey, Darren, and I got it."

"Nonsense!" Dave said. "Remember, I'm not your guest—I'm family now!"

I hadn't even realized my thumb and index finger was rubbing my eyes at that point. "Just follow me, Dave," I said to answer for my mom. I wasn't about to listen to any justifications on her part or whatever.

Dave sat up from his seat, and made his way up next to me. After that, I ventured into the kitchen with him. The rest of the serving dishes were set out for us to take into the dining room, and my eyes caught a glimpse of the desserts for later next to the windows.

"Ugh, he put shrimp in the dressing again," I stated aloud, observing my dad's added ingredients to what was supposed to be a simple dish. However, this seemed to catch Dave's attention.

"Shrimp?" he wondered, fluttering his 'fingers' together. "I didn't know humans put shrimp in their bread shards."

"Bread shards?" I asked, raising a brow. "It's—never mind, Dave. Jeez, it's called 'dressing'."

His eyes skimmed over to the other side dish. The mac and cheese.

"How did your mom know!?" he gasped.

"Know what?"

"Know how much I love cheese! She made my favorite! All that's missing is the clams! But with that shrimp dressing, as you say it, I suppose it doesn't matter."

"Nobody knew you were obsessed with mac and cheese, Dave. We always make this for Thanksgiving. Now which one are you going to take to the dining room?"

"Oh, I simply can't choose!" Dave shifted his head between the two, getting a little ahead of himself I guess, before I grabbed hold of the mac and cheese from under him, and started walking to the kitchen to get things moving along. I guess that was enough to pull him back to reality, because he took hold of the dressing and followed after me. Once we arrived back into the dining room my parents helped get hold of the side dishes we brought in, and sat them on the table.

"All right, you guys, are we ready to eat?" my dad asked.

"Yes, fill up my plate!" Grandpa immediately responded.

"Let's say grace first, Darren." My mom nudged Dad, taking his hand, to which my dad would reach for Grandpa's hand, and then his to Grandmas, etc. until the circular hand embrace ended with Steven extending his hand out to Dave's.

Steven was smiling at Dave, giddy like a little kid or something. Good thing though, because Dave seemed to catch on with what we were doing, and took Steven's hand, then turned to me, extending his 'hand' to mine.

Once the dinner circle was complete, I watched Mom nudge Dad again, then and only then the family bowing our heads to say grace. Once we gave dinner our blessing, Grandpa called out, "Let's eat!" and we all took our seats, commencing Thanksgiving dinner officially.

Dishes and silverware clinked around me as everyone began coordinating the table to get what they wanted on their plates. Steam was rising up out of the food, and the act of serving spoons scooping up goops, and people grabbing hold of the turkey, caused more so to puff up above the table. It was here that I realized for a few moments I could revel in the fact that everybody was focusing on building their dinner rather than worrying about Dave and I. I allowed my eyes to drift off because of this, my awareness soaking in the house. Soon after, I stared out the big windows behind everybody and beyond the table, seeing a gentle rushing of still green trees outside. Texas didn't seem to take the hint that it was autumn, and continued to be persistent that it was supposed to be in the 70's.

A lone red leaf peered out from under the canvas of green, shuttered in the wind as a breeze plucked it from above, forcing it to fall down to the ground.

"So how goes the pledge drives? I saw that commercial that you put out, Octavius," Dad spoke up, forcing me to lose track of the red leaf as it fell into the grass, and my conscientiousness came presently back to the table.

"We just had one a few days ago at the Central Park Zoo," Dave responded. He had just put a big mound of mac and cheese next to an equally big mound of the shrimp dressing on his plate, his plate consisting of this and only this. "I added the commercial to the mix once I realized that it was going to be hard to attend pledge drives in person…. As you know, we lost a lot of our inventory after that terrorist attack."

"Yes, how awful," Mom said. She shot a look at me. "Kailey, I can't believe you went off and fought those evil people!"

Hmmm. Yes, evil people. People. Totally not an interspecies organization that was currently trying to arrest Dave, and do who the hell knows what to me.

"I did what I had to do," I said nonchalantly.

"Kailey!"

"What? I'm alive, aren't I?"

While I was very much over it, I hadn't realized that not only was my family put off with the entire incident with me piloting a giant freaking mech against these 'terrorists', but so was Dave.

Looking over, I saw it in his eyes. A slight scowl had overcome his lips, but he hid the anger so well.

"I still remember the day," Dave said. "I was so angry that they did that. Whoever they were, they only want to cause me and my company misery."

"Do you think they are the ones who had kidnapped the penguins?" my brother asked then. "Why else would these guys be attacking Octavius?"

"Yeah, it makes sense. Did you ever find out who they were? Any evidence at all?" my brother's girlfriend asked.

"No," Dave grumbled, although behind his tone I knew he was hiding a multitude of stories.

As I sat there, painfully aware of not only how he must've been feeling, but the anxious eyes of my entire family upon him, a pang seemed to strike my chest as a new awareness came to me.

_My family didn't know anything._

It wasn't just the whole thing with Dave being an octopus. If it were just that I guess that would've been better. It was so much more. While this had been evident to me more so this last summer, these strange feelings of isolation returned to me. They could never know about what I went through. My mom, even—I couldn't even tell her all that had happened. I felt this like a weight on my shoulders; everything with fighting and staying safe from North Wind, all this lying about what we were doing with our money, the fact Dave was the one that had been kidnapping those stupid penguins. Holy shit, the whole blowing up part was just the top of the iceberg.

Ugh. Icebergs…. I wonder if North Wind abandoned that place or not.

"I hope those garbage criminals get what's coming to them," Dad said. "I don't even like the idea of them still being out there. What if they come back?"

"Kailey, you're safe… right?" mom asked then, pain and concern radiating off of her at this point.

As I looked into her eyes—her saddened, soft eyes—another pang in my chest hit me.

"We'll be fine… mom," I said. The lie came out of me reluctantly, but once it left I felt its passing seem to sting my lips. I clutched the end of my shirt from under the table, wrangling the fabric between my palm as my mind scurried around again. _Another lie_ , I thought. _But why is it so much harder now? Why does it have to be like this?_

"Let's change the subject," Dad said then, his stern domineering taking over as he tried to regain control of the conversation. "That's a tough subject. We're here to be family, so let's talk about something else."

"Let's," grandpa echoed, grumbling as he chewed his food.

Somberness continued to manifest around the table, an easing quietness serving as a shift in our conversation like an inhale of air. My eyes had eventually settled on Dave, my silent stare reaching out in the only way I could at the time in order to check up on him, seeing he was trying to make the shift himself in these brief moments of silence.

"So, how do you like the dressing and mac, Octavius?" my mom asked then. "Do you like the shrimp? It was Darren's idea."

"I haven't tried it yet" Dave responded, picking up his fork. I watched as that bitterness about him dissipated after he returned his attention to the food. "I'll do so now, though!" he finally said.

I watched carefully as he tried to use the fork. Seeing Dave eat with a utensil could only go one of two ways: okay, or horribly wrong. Here at the family Thanksgiving dinner, the simple act of using a fork seemed to challenge his normality. I was prepared to give him a pinch if he decided to shovel the food in his mouth like he did with that freaking whole ass fish from way back.

His arm wobbled for a moment, but after that, he managed to take his first bite of the shrimp dressing. I watched as whatever was left of his negativity vanished, being replaced by his obvious happiness with the weird choice in side dish. After that, he scooped up a forkful of the mac and cheese, doing the same thing as he tasted it. The realization of its flavor hit him like a kid eating candy.

"It's terrific!" Dave said. "You should really give me the recipe… I would really like my chef Kevin to serve this up sometime."

"See, he likes it," Dad commented, obviously having challenged Mom on the legitimacy of putting crustaceans into cornbread dressing. "But you have a chef, huh? Maybe next year we should have dinner at your place."

"Oh, that would be wonderful," Dave responded, my eyes growing wide when he said that.

I shook my head, mouthing, "No", but this caught more of my mom's attention than it did Dave's.

"What's wrong, Kailey? You don't want to make your poor parents Thanksgiving dinner next year?"

"Jeez, Mom, it's not that," I responded, my face flushing again. A flash of imaginary instances in my brain went off in my head of my family sitting with all the henchmen at the dining room table in our building in New York. Having Thanksgiving in a corporate building full of deadass actual octopuses wasn't something my family was ready for. Not to mention they'd see that Dave was actually able to talk to said octopuses, so that was another red flag that they didn't need to see. Shit, above all else that was something Leah _absolutely_ could not see. I'm sure if she even so much as looked in the direction of an octopus walking on land she'd be instantly reminded of her 'dream' of being knocked unconscious by them.

I awkwardly looked over at Leah then, who was mid mouthful of green beans when she returned eye contact.

I quickly looked away, and picked up my fork, prepared to actually start eating now, but that wasn't meant for me, I suppose.

"Kailey, that reminds me," Leah finally spoke up, ironically.

I sighed, shuffling my food around in defeat. "What?"

"So I was going to wait until after dinner to tell you this, but I have a bunch of tickets to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival this weekend. I invited your your brother, his girlfriend, and Steven already, but it would be awesome if you and Octavius could come with us."

"Yes, please come!" Steven gasped, the table even shaking from his knee or something having hit the bottom somewhere.

"What's a Renaissance festival?" Dave asked.

"Ummm, you wouldn't be interested, Octavius." I was trying to deter what was happening. "It's just some historical thing."

"That sounds interesting; tell me what it's about," Dave persisted. I realized slowly that I was in a losing battle.

"There are all kinds of stuff to do: shopping, food, all that," Leah explained, "but, it's the theme that's really fun. It's Ren Fest, so everyone, even the staff dress and act like fantasy and renaissance characters."

"I'd love to go," Dave said. "When are we going?"

"I was going to suggest tomorrow morning, if that's good with you," Leah said.

"How delightful!" Dave was starting to reveal his crooked-toothed grin. "Sounds like a plan, then. I'll have to think of a costume, but I'm sure Kailey will have some ideas, since she does cosplay and all. Right, dearest?"

My teeth were grinding together, unbeknownst to everyone sitting around me, so from the outside I looked like I had a frog in my mouth or something. "Sure…" I finally hissed.

"I'll dress up this year too, so it'll be cool to see what we all come up with!" Leah chuckled. "I've been wanting to wear my new bodice for a while now. I also made a new flower crown, to match it. What do you think you'll wear, Kailey?"

"I don't think any of my costumes are here anymore, Leah." I was trying too hard to get out of the the situation I was in, at least as much as I could.

"I wouldn't throw out your stuff, Kailey!" Mom said then, her response piercing my ears. "We actually made a new room for you with all your things upstairs. After you moved out with Leah I went ahead and organized all your stuff here."

"That's great, Mom," I replied, again, from the outside seemingly happy, but on the inside I was hollering all kinds of profanities at myself.

 _Shit!_ It was one thing hanging out at home all weekend with Dave with my parents, but now I was going to have to escort him—an octopus—through a freaking renaissance fair? Was he even ready to see humanity at its stupidest? At its most insulting—all at once? Ren Fest was fun, but for an octopus it would be culture shock! How the hell was this weekend not going to kill me now?


	7. Pleasant Dreams and Autumn Nights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, a Dave POV chapter! I hope you guys didn't think I would leave out his side of the story. So, like last time, I will indicate a shift over to Dave's POV by writing his name in bold before the chapter. Otherwise, it will be in Kailey's POV.

**Dave**

How does one describe happiness?

To most, even for me for what it seemed like an eternity, happiness was only something I could have obtained after hard work. Happiness, a mere six months ago, would have been defined by my revenge. It was an unobtainable, metaphorical object, something I always was reaching for, but never seemed to grasp. An idea of the future to strive for, not something to actually experience.

For the longest time I had thought that happiness just wasn't for me.

But oh! Oh, what a lie that was. What I was feeling then, and even now as I recall it all, that elation… that joy… the experience of not being alone anymore… it had come to me without me even trying, and had been set in front of me when maybe I hadn't even deserved it.

Being with Kailey, and being a part of her family dinner… 'No, way, Dave!' I would've said. I was the old, forgotten octopus. The one passed on to zoo after aquarium, without so much as a blink in my direction.

And yet, there I was, included, regarded with respect. I was more than Dr. Octavius Brine. I was family.

Maybe I'm getting too ahead of myself, but does it hurt to allow yourself to enjoy life for a change? Is it so much to ask that I'd be allowed these moments of peace?

The taste of Kailey's mom's mac and cheese, the shrimp dressing—the pumpkin cheesecake for dessert! I had no idea what it was with humans and pumpkins during the colder months, but I couldn't blame them. Taste to me became associated with wonder, love…

_And it all started with that snowglobe._

If I didn't despise Skipper and his posse so much then this would have never happened. If I would have gotten my revenge the first time around, I wouldn't have ended up in that snowglobe, and that little girl wouldn't have found me. I wouldn't have been forgotten, yet again, in an airport to finally, oh finally, to be picked up by the one that really mattered to me.

 _I am going to marry Kailey,_ I thought to myself, long after everyone had left Thanksgiving dinner. The busy chatting and feasting was gone, but the feeling of warmth and comfort remained. It was then, in the dark silence of an autumn night, that I began to fantasize about how I was going to ask her again… how I was going to get her to say, 'I do.'

"Kailey, would you come here for a minute?" I heard her mom say from the kitchen. At this point Darren, and her brother had disappeared somewhere upstairs, leaving Kailey and her mother, along with myself, the only ones on the first floor. The home felt full, even though we were the only ones who remained.

"Yeah?" I heard Kailey sigh.

The sound of her footsteps filtered through the halls, the high arches of the wood ceilings in the dining room reminding me of a cathedral; echoes of cheers and laughter spilling from the depths of my consciousness as I projected a brief world of what I would have with her. A moment of the future, and yet came to me as a memory, as if it were something I had already experienced.

"Can you help me with some of the dishes?" her mom asked. "Your dad is tired, and I don't want to bother him."

"Okay," Kailey said. I heard the sink faucet turn on, the sound of dishes ringing together. _Clink, clank_ —bells were added to the sounds of my future as I continued to stare up at the ceiling, the transition of sound smooth like a drift into a dream.

For a brief moment, I saw Kailey there in that dream, dressed in a white dress. In a cathedral, with the bells and laughter and the warmth that I felt inside me and around me becoming my world.

 _She's my world,_ I thought. _And this is just the beginning…_

The sound of silverware being scrapped across a plate caught my attention then, the forks and knives falling from the plate and then to the floor with a loud ring. "Oh, shit!" Kailey hollered.

_Yes, that's my girl._

I sat up, dusting my lab coat off, and made my way to the kitchen just behind the open archway. I saw Kailey scramble to the floor at that moment, grabbing hold of the eating utensils, and raise back up to meet her mother.

"I'm a klutz," she said.

"Don't say that about yourself, you're fine," her mom responded. "Go ahead and rinse the rest, can you? You can just load everything into the dishwasher. My back is killing me, and I need to lay down on the couch."

"Okay," Kailey said again.

The two walked past each other, Kailey towards the sink, and her mother towards the hall on the other side of the kitchen, seeing me and acknowledging me as she made her way out. "Hey, Octavius," her mother said with a soft smile. "I'll be in the living room whenever you and Kailey are ready. I still have to show her her room, and I'll go ahead and show you to your room as well."

"Sounds good," I replied.

Once she left I turned my attention to Kailey, her hands in a pair of oversized purple rubber gloves now, buried partially in the soapy water as she rinsed off one plate after another, placing them into the dishwasher as she went.

"Can I help?" I asked.

She paused only a tad, and replied, "You don't have to."

I smiled, that simple phrase carrying with it memories on its own. "But I want to," I said, my smile forcing my response to come out in a half chuckle.

This time, she paused completely. This gave me a chance to walk up next to her, my hand extending next to take hold of the plate that was in hers to put it into the dishwasher for her.

"Promise you won't wobble all over the place?" she joked. "Don't want you tripping all over yourself with dishes."

"Look who's talking," I commented, recalling her dropping the silverware moments earlier.

"Touché," she said, looking up at me then with a playful glare, shoving the wet plate in my hand.

We did this for a few minutes, her rinsing, I placing the dishes in the washer. The silence encouraged me to say, "Your family seems like a nice bunch."

"I'm surprised my dad wasn't as much of an asshole this year," she said. "Usually he's yelling at me and complaining that I'm not helping enough, and fussing about his dumb turkey. I guess with the new house and you being here he had to up his 'appropriate host' levels or something."

I chuckled. "Not surprised. I was worried there for a second when he huffed at your new ring."

"Oh yeah, don't get me started about that. I thought he was going to lose it."

"But it all worked out." I turned to look at her, shooting her another grin. She looked back at me, out of habit I suppose, tensed up again as her cheeks turned pink. I loved making her do that. _The grins always did the trick._

"Anyway…" she said, trying to divert the situation like she usually did. "Do you… really want to go to that stupid Renaissance Festival?"

"Of course I do," I placed another dish into the sink just as she handed it off to me. "I've never been, so figured I'd see how these things are."

"It's hell."

"What do you mean? You've obviously been."

"Yeah, but like… ugh… I don't know, dang Da—err ,Octavius. Not only will people probably recognize you, but Ren Fest is like… on a whole different level."

"A whole different level of what?"

"Of idiocy."

"I don't understand, you go all the time but think it's dumb?"

"I go because I like shopping and dressing up," she said with a sigh. "It's just a lot to handle for a first timer I guess. Someone who isn't really from _around_ here, either."

"Well, we can't back out of it now. Maybe you can help me with a costume, huh? I'd love to fit with the theme."

"Okay, then… what kind of character do you want to go as?"

"What's there to choose from?"

She shrugged. "I mean renaissance era. Fantasy stuff. You know: knights, wizards, and all that shit. I'll have to show you a list or something."

The last plate came up out of the water, Kailey handing it to me. I went through the motion of taking it from her and placing it in the dishwasher, the last dish marking the end of chores and rewarding us with a clean kitchen. Kailey then took off her purple gloves and set them down next to the sink to dry.

"Mom, we're ready to see the rooms!" she yelled then. I could hear her mom shuffling around in the living room; Kailey's summoning worked quickly to get her into the kitchen again to meet with us.

"That was fast!" I hear her mother comment. She finally appeared back in the kitchen from the hallway, paused only when she saw us standing next to each other. "Oh, you helped, too, Octavius? That's so sweet!"

"You always taught me that teamwork makes the dream work," Kailey said. "Two sets of hands are better than one."

"True, true…" her mom hummed. "All right, come up the stairs with me. I'll show you around."

Like the shifting of a dream, I had followed them from the kitchen and to the second floor, not quite registering the procession as my mind seemed to cling to different thoughts as I passed through a hallway leading towards a series of personal quarters. The same wooden floors as downstairs acted in a sense as my stream of thought, my imagination momentarily taking me from reality and placing me in the place I imaged I would be in soon—so soon with Kailey. This home was what I could only describe as something I compared to a metaphor of my future... soft, loving... full of hope and comfort.

"Here's Kailey's room," her mom said, smiling softly. She extended her hand outward, and gently turned the door knob, opening the door to reveal the room she had prepared for her daughter. A little _meow_ met my ears, soon my eyes catching a glimpse of the cat making the noise.

"Kiki!" Kailey gasped, rushing into the room to grab and pet the ashy-white feline. She looked around the room then more intently after she had the thing in her arms, surveying everything from her bed, to her dressers, and even some of the interesting tokens and props that she must've had for a while. "Oh, wow, it's nice!" Kailey said. "You even got me some mannequins finally! I can finally have my cosplays out without having to shove them under the bed or something."

"I thought you would appreciate that. You have a bathroom and a walk in closet over there, too," her mom said, pointing toward a partially open door.

"You've got to be shitting me! Hell yeah!"

"Kailey, no. _Hell_ certainly isn't something that should go along with _yeah_." Her mother turned to look at me for a second, her expression completely serious as she asked, "Does she use her potty mouth around you all the time?"

I raised a brow. "You mean her choice of words? Yeah, so?"

Her mother sighed. "She gets it from her father. Sometimes I joke around and say she's just Darren but a girl." She shifted into a mild chuckle then, trying to alleviate her discomfort.

"Not true," I added, lifting a finger for effect, "her savagery is very much countered by her hard working domineer and helpfulness, as I see she gets from you."

Her mom laughed this time. "Thank you Octavius! I do try." She briefly shifted her attention to her daughter, said, "I'm going to show Octavius to his room, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Kailey replied, her hands stoking over one of her costume props.

Again, the view of this room shifted as I was escorted down the hallway, quickly coming then to what would be designated as my room for the remainder of the weekend. Like before, her mother opened the door gently, revealing my quarters.

"Here you go, Octavius," she said. "Everything has been cleaned up and made ready for you. I wanted your stay to be as comfortable as possible, so you'll find everything you need in here. There's a bathroom attached here as well over there." She pointed over to another door to the opposite end of the room. "Fresh towels are in the cabinet."

"Thank you," I said. I felt that was the least I could say, but I was almost to taken aback to say anything else. It was one thing being catered around by a bunch of strangers and fans, but this was genuine because this was Kailey's mother. This was… dare I say… _my family_.

"Goodnight, Octavius. Hopefully I'll see you guys off in the morning when Leah comes to get you," she said, and went back down the hallway, leaving me in front of my quarters.

I quickly felt compelled to go meet back with Kailey again, though. As much as I wanted to explore my new space I knew there would be time to do that later. I wanted to plan tomorrow at this point, and see what my dearest could come up with for me, considering I'd never been to one of these festivals before.

So I walked back down the hall, finding myself instantly beside the doorway to Kailey's room, and peered inside. She was still focused on her dressed mannequins; the one in particular that currently had her attention was a strange white and futuristic armor harness and bracers, with purple pants, along with a spiky short wig. At her bed, staring at her, was the cat, Kiki.

"Is that the one you're wearing tomorrow?" I asked.

Kailey turned to look at me. "Umm… no, does this look Renaissance to you?" she paused for a second, her eyes furrowed still as she looked at me with contemplation. "Do you even know what renaissance is?"

"Of course I do!" I said. "It's the knights, wizards—kings and queens sort of thing, right? Historical in terms of human history?"

Kailey's furrowed, confused expression shattered. She started laughing for a long time, managing after a bit to get out a comment through her chuckles. "Sure, wizards are historical figures."

"Okay, so what are you going as then?" I was being persistent. I really wanted to understand this festival and what I was supposed to do.

"Errr… I guess I was just going to wear one of my dresses. I found my elf ears in here too, and my circlet crown, so I'll do that."

"A circlet? So a princess?"

"Uhh, not necessarily, but I guess so?" She wiped her right eye with her palm, removing a stray tear that had settled there from her laughing prior. "Let's see… I have some green and brown fabric in the closet here and some brown leather. I don't have anything for armor, so a knight is out of the question. Tell me, what do you see yourself as, hm, Dave?"

"A wizard would be pretty cool, but I don't have a staff," I said, letting myself slip fully into the room then, closing the door behind me.

"Hold on a second, let me bring up the D&D classes," Kailey said. She took out her little blue phone, started texting something into it. "D&D isn't really historically accurate, I'll have you know, but maybe it'll give you an idea for a costume."

"What's D&D?" I asked.

"Dungeons and Dragons," she stated, but that was all she said before she walked up beside me, showing me the little screen so the two of us could look at it in unison. "See… you have the usual stuff, like the wizard, pfftt, but there's rangers... you know, archers, fighters, kinda like a knight I guess…"

"What's a bard?" I felt like more questions were coming out of me at the time, but being out of the loop, of the sorts, it was necessary. I didn't become a human renowned geneticist without asking questions that was for sure!

"Bards are like poets and musicians…" she said.

"So an entertainer?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

For some reason at her acknowledgement, my mind sent me back in time. I was in the Central Park Zoo; children were propped up against my tank, looking at me happily as I, Dave the octopus, put on a show for them! I had so many tricks up my sleeve, so many dances to show them. Even as Dr. Brine, that was what I did for my fans. The famous geneticist thing was one thing, sure, but putting on the show—that was what I was good at. Making them laugh, cry? Inspiring them? Enchanting the masses?

"I'm a bard!" I gasped then, cutting her off from reading the list any further.

"A bard, eh?" she asked. "Do you know how to play a lute?"

"No, I do not, but I will learn! It can't be that hard, right?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever, Dave," she said. "But look, don't get your hopes up about this thing. When we go to the festival, stay next to me, and don't get lost. Even in a bard costume I'm sure you'll be noticed, and you don't want to run into any of the creeps. Believe me."

"I've already run into my share of weirdoes, dearest!" I said, trying to make her more comfortable with all this by confirming this wasn't new in a sense of meeting not-so-bright humans. "Let me use that fabric you mentioned earlier, and I'll have Penny and Kenny come though my window and help me out tonight."

"Dave, are you crazy?" she heaved then. Seemed me trying to calm her down in one way just made her freak out in a different way. Not that I minded, really. I was used to her overthinking things, but not to worry!

Placing a hand on her shoulder, I said, "Don't worry, dearest! I promise, we'll be careful. Besides, I want to discuss with them some details tonight about what's been going on back at Octo Corp. I may be on holiday, but the building isn't."

"Ugh… true," she said. "Just don't let them get goop everywhere. Mom'll freak out if she sees anything messy." Her arms started giving me a _shoo_ , motion, when she said, "Okay, Dave, get out! I'd like to get to sleep."

"See you in the morning then," I said. I knew to give her space when she was ready for sleep, so I obeyed, turned around and slipped out the door, closing it behind me. When I had made it down the hallway, and back into my quarters, shutting the door behind me, I placed my finger to the small mic device I had been wearing in my ear, and hailed my henchmen.

"You two, meet me up on the second floor, upward left side of the house," I said. "I'll open the window for you. There are things I need to discuss with you."

Kenny gave me a brief acknowledgement, then the line cut. I knew they'd show up any time now, being as thorough and compliant as they were, but while I waited I began to take the time to look around.

A comfy bed, a lovely wooden vanity with a mirror, the room a pleasant temperature, with lingering smells of baked goods from the passing of our feast—the quaint room contrasted the room I used to use in my submarines. While I was now walking on smooth, wooden floors, I remembered my days pacing back and forth, the metal floors of my submarine chiming _clanks_ as I walked in Brine's shoes. Days of working on my Medusa Serum, plotting, wondering… and days of acting for the masses too seemed so vain now.

I wondered how I could have ever been so angry—so cold.

A tap at the window caught my attention then. Snapping out of my constant flashbacks came easy when I saw their orange and pink colors stick out against the darkness behind them.

I walked over and opened the window, softly and quietly, and then allowed them inside. I only shut the window halfway, justifying that if they needed to leave without a moment's notice they could slip out easily this way.

"So, first things first," I began. "Any news back at base?"

Penny was the first to speak, informing me that all seemed to be going smoothly.

However, I was thorough too, and felt this was out of place, so I elaborated, saying, "Any sign of North Wind? Anything… off?" There were many things running across my mind when I said that, but I was subtle in my questioning.

Penny continued. No sign of North Wind spying on Octo Corp, not even the owl. Strange. I wouldn't expect them to call it quits, even on a holiday, but alas. Even while I found some minor relief in the lack of more North Wind sightings in my absence, Penny then started describing a truck that had pulled up next to Octo Corp, parked there for a while, and then after my take-off to Houston, it drove away.

"Weird," I commented, adjusting my glasses as I thought, "but not really out of the ordinary. Probably another fan, as usual…" I trailed off, only for a moment as another thought crossed my mind. I recalled the 'alien ship' that Rayonna had told us about today. I knew for certain that it wasn't one of mine, but I couldn't quite place whose it was. It wasn't like the picture was all that great to begin with, so I couldn't blame myself for my inability to identify it, but still.

"Penny, Kenny, you two be on the lookout for anything else strange. The humans, at least a small portion of them, have reported sightings of a ship. I wouldn't want to think it's our enemies coming up with another plan to stop me, but you can never be too careful."

The two stared at me, concerned for a moment, shifting their gaze back and forth between each other and then back to me in caution, before I moved on to the next subject.

"So, tomorrow is none other than what the humans call the Renaissance Festival!" I said. "I am to become a bard… Penny, do you know what that is?"

Her eyes widened, excitement suddenly overcoming her as she started bouncing up and down.

"Ah, I am so glad you know what I'm talking about. You may be my head engineer, but I should really officially start calling you my expert on human things." I shifted my stance, and kneeled down to get on their level, said, "I'm going to need a costume and a… Kailey said it was a lute. Can you two get those ready for me?"

Penny shook her head up and down, happiness still overcoming her, while calmly Kenny obliged.

"I knew I could count on you guys!" I cheered.

There was time for work, sure, but now was my time to engrain myself more into human culture. What a fun day that was awaiting me—nay, an entire weekend! I trusted my henchman to stay on top of things back in New York, so I tried brushing off my obligations for now.

For once, I was determined to acknowledge that business could wait.


	8. The Renaissance Festival

**Dave**

It was half past eight o'clock by the time I heard the doorbell ring, but I had been finished with my preparations for the day long before then. A sleepless night was nothing I wasn't used to already, but more so than not those sleepless nights before had been because of my revenge. Recently they had been because plans for trying to keep Octo Corp afloat, and my Brine persona intact.

Never had I gone without sleep to prepare for something like this. Well, I take that back… I had done all-nighters like this to practice my performances when I used to live at the Central Park Zoo…

But that's beside the point!

This day was a different kind of day. Today I would be departing on a new adventure with my dearest, to none other than what the humans called a Renaissance Festival. I could only imagine what I would see: people dressed up, good food, a nice atmosphere… what more was there to ask? I had been at a human parade the day before, full of colors and music; this was simply a shift over to something slightly different, but wonderful all in the same.

"How do I look?" I asked my two henchmen, Penny and Kenny, who had faithfully stayed up all night helping me put together the human bard costume and helped get started learning this stringed instrument called a lute.

The two simply nodded, enthusiastic in their own ways as I struck a pose.

"Thank goodness you managed to find all that material to make this stuff. Kailey had some things but I don't think it would've been enough to cover me well enough, you know?" I lifted my hands to where I could see them, looking at the brown leather gloves that for now would replace my usual green rubber gloves I'd normally wear as Octavius Brine. "It all came together quite nicely."

A knock at the door caught my attention. Out of caution I merely had to nod at my henchmen, who then began to quietly make their way back out the cracked window, and disappear outside. It was probably best that they stayed out of the house anyway when I wasn't here, considering Kailey's parents weren't coming with us and would be at home all day. Not to mention I felt better with someone watching the jet we had flown in with, currently parked at a nearby regional airport.

"Umm, Octavius, are you ready or not?" Kailey asked from behind the door. I couldn't help but let off a soft sigh hearing it was her.

I walked over and opened the door then, being greeted by my dearest all ready to go as usual, but instead in her costume. She was wearing the elf ears she had mentioned the night earlier, along with a golden circlet around her head. She was wearing a red dress, around her neck a matching red scaled dragon prop, like a necklace.

For a moment I couldn't help but admire her, though once I caught myself staring for too long I cleared my throat, and said, "Are we going for a villain, dearest?" I couldn't help but smile. Kailey did say before that she wasn't the villainous type, but despite her protests otherwise she took the look and nailed it without even trying.

"Errr… well, not exactly," she said, her eyes scanning me over then, seemingly diverting from herself and to me. "How the hell did you put all that together? Also where did the lute come from?"

"I had help from Penny and Kenny," I replied, looking down both sides of the hallway as I said this to make sure nobody happened to be in earshot. "Maybe I'll play a song for you later."

"No freaking way." Kailey's eyes widened. "Can't say I'm surprised, though. You're always pulling off weird tricks and shit."

"Not a trick, dearest!" I cooed. "Just persistence and preparation."

"Greeeaaaat," Kailey said, smiling with her teeth. "You'll fit right in with the rest of us."

"Exactly!" I straightened myself up, adjusting my glasses. "Although you don't think I should take off these, do you? My glasses, I mean. I don't think folks in these times wore them."

"Who cares," Kailey huffed. "Anyway, we should get going. Leah, Steven, Dannen and his girlfriend are already waiting downstairs—"

"I didn't realize we were already ready to leave!" I couldn't help but perk up then; not like I wasn't already happy for the day to start, though.

I put my arm around her, both as a way to escort her along with me, and a way to feel close to her as we walked down the hall and down the stairs together, immediately greeted by the group I would be attending the festival with.

All dressed in their costumes as well, the bunch of them stared up at us as we made our way down. I heard Steven gasp out loud first, commenting, "You two look so adorable together!" which only added to my excitement.

"Yes, don't we?" I melted at the attention I was getting, especially in a way that complemented Kailey at my side.

Leah pulled out a cellphone from her big dress skirt, looking at the time. "We should get going now if we want to make it at opening. Are we all ready to go?"

"Yeah," Kailey replied. She looked up at me, her face neutral and calm as she spoke to me next. "Octavius," she began, "are you ready for this?"

Kailey said it like she was being cautionary, but for the life of me I couldn't understand it. I told her I had seen strange enough stuff in my life, and knew the different ways humans acted and what they did, so it wasn't like this festival was going to do anything else to change my mind.

"I am," I stated firmly, keeping up my grin as I attempted to channel my confidence back at her. "You know I always am."

She shrugged, and loosened up slightly from under my arm. All she said was, "If you say so."

"I'm going immediately to the turkey leg booth; do you guys want to join me?" Steven's suggestion suddenly interrupted the conversation.

"It's like… early, dude," Kailey's brother replied.

"But it's festival turkey legs," Steven cooed.

"To be fair, I'm more looking forward to cheesecake on a stick," Kailey mentioned then, though her statement caught my attention more than Steven's did.

"Cheesecake? On a stick?" I inquired.

"And dipped in chocolate." I watched as Kailey couldn't help but smile.

"Okay, you've got me there," I admitted, picturing it my mind. Humans ate with sticks, cooked with sticks, built things with sticks, now there was food on sticks? Not just any food, but cake? Amazing.

Oh, what an interesting day this was going to be!

. . . . . . .

The drive out took a bit longer than expected due to traffic, but once we got there—oh wow. Wowie. I couldn't believe how festive it was! Of course I knew it was a festival, but this was different. It was a _themed_ festival, so everyone was all dressed up.

As we walked through the entry gates to exchange our tickets, I could hear people talking. They were all starting to sound more like how Kailey's friend Steven talked, but more regal, I guess. It took the people slightly more time to notice me as being who I was—Dr. Octavius Brine—but when they did I began to hear their mutters, joyful explanations and whispers of my arrival adding on top of the chatter of the mass gathering of people.

_"Look who it is!"_

_"No way, he's here?"_

_"He's with his fiancée, how precious!"_

Ah yes, I absorbed it all. The attention—the admiration. Even in this costume people knew me. Kailey always seemed to make fun of my red wig and all, but it really brought my persona together. I didn't even need my lab coat for people to know me as their renowned doctor.

Deeper through the entryway, I finally stood before the festival. It was a playground in a sense that there was so much to see: shops of clothing and shiny things, foods, colors, and decorations. Some decorations already were emphasizing the Christmas holiday, and were strewn around the festival, high and low. Because we were in Texas, late autumn's bitter cold and usual welcoming of winter was absent, and unlike New York, there was but a pleasant breeze, reminding me of the type of cool air that I often felt when I had stood atop my submarine surfaced above the open oceans.

A still, new morning light filtered over everything like another spotlight waiting for me to step into.

"Okay, Octavius, this is it," Kailey said, looking up to face me again. "You absolutely have to stay close to me. I know there is a lot of stuff going on here, but you can't get lost. Obviously people recognize you already. That means they'll want pictures, and that's just one thing that's going to drag you down, I swear."

"You act like you know how it is to get bombarded by pictures," I commented.

"I do, but like… that's your fault." Kailey grumbled. "Whatever though, quit making me forget what I was going to tell you." She paused for a second; recollecting herself as her eyebrows furrowed, finally said, "Just stay by me, okay?"

"I will." I rolled my eyes playfully.

Looking ahead, I could see the group already proceeding forward, beginning to creep into the crowd of festival goers walking past to and fro. Kailey had grabbed my arm by then and started escorting me behind them, taking me further and further into the festival so that the gathering, slowly as we progressed, grew on me like the turning of pages of a story.

There were dancers towards the left on a stage, men in leather clothes like me, preparing a band of some kind. To the right were shops—shops galore! People calling out, "Hear Ye! Thanksgiving sale! Get everything marked down!" as people passed.

My attention was torn when I heard Kailey's brother laughing, his voice a boom amongst the commotion around us. I immediately heard a smack to my side—Kailey had facepalmed herself.

"Don't look," she said. "Just… look at the flowers." Her arm that had been holding onto my arm let me go so she could point to the side at a small garden. But despite her warnings I instead looked over to where the commotion was coming from, and what her brother was laughing at.

"Get a picture with the centaur, Steven!" Kailey's brother laughed out loud. Beside them was a very large shirtless man… that was half a horse. Further inspection revealed it was a costume, but I found myself baffled, nonetheless.

"A half horse man?" I inquired aloud. "Seems plausible but—"

"What do you mean, 'seems plausible'?" Kailey erupted then, taking her hand from her face to look forward at the group.

"No, I'll pass," Steven begun to say, but before we all knew it the large centaur man had put his arm around him.

More bursts of laughter.

I had to refocus so I could answer Kailey's question. "My Medusa Serum mixes different genetic codes to create… well you know, chimeras of the sort." I pondered for a moment longer to myself, my mind wrapping around both the mythological aspects of the creature in human history, but also how there and then, they were laughing with it, celebrating with it.

Humans were confusing.

"Oh shit, go to your left," Kailey warned me again. She began forcefully pushing me to the side, trying to get me to walk.

"Why, dearest? What's the matter?"

"The fairy guy is coming, hurry!" She sounded desperate to get away.

"FAIRY DUST!" The sound of whoever this fairy guy must've been was somewhere behind us. I felt like my stance was too anchored, absorbing everything, that I didn't even have time to move. Kailey had even taken it upon herself to dive under me and scurry away before I suddenly turned my head in the direction of the voice, without warning another human dressed in a pink tutu with plastic bug wings having thrown sparkly sand at me.

"FAIRY DUST!" he hollered again, but this time I was blinded by whatever had gotten in my eyes to see him walk away. I knew he was gone by the sound of his catchphrase fading with every moment that went by.

"I warned you! What are you, dense!?" Kailey huffed then. I felt her return to my side, but was unable to open my eyes just yet. "Good lord, you look like..." it sounded like she was choking for a second, but resumed talking despite this. "You—you look like…"

"Look like what?" I huffed. I wiped my hand over my face, trying to get the stuff out of my eyes, and then managed to peek at my glove. The sparkly sand was _everywhere_.

"You're covered in glitter, you look like an idiot," she finally said. "You and your sticky self… it's just _glued_ on you now."

"It can't be that bad…" I chuckled mildly; nervously.

"Hey mom, look a vampire!" a kid pointed out. Kailey and I looked over to see a small boy and his mother pass, the two staring at us with wide eyes.

"Vampires don't sparkle in the sun, sweetie, they die," the mother replied.

"Kailey!" I gasped. I turned to look at her, suddenly my hearts racing like crazy. "Am I going to die!?"

"God, no!" Kailey fussed. I rushed to the right without being further prompted, desperately looking for a mirror or something to look at myself with. I managed to find a fountain, and looked in to try and get a look at what was going on with myself. When I saw my reflection I was appalled by how correct Kailey was. _I was glittery._

I dove my head into the fountain, unable to contain the urge to get this stuff off of me.

"OCTAVIUS, WHAT THE HELL!?" I heard Kailey yell again, but I ignored her for a time. I managed to slosh my face around in the water for as long as I thought was humanly possible to not seem suspicious that I could be drowning myself, and then pulled out of the water. My eyes were glued to my reflection in the water, waiting for it to settle so I could see myself properly.

As my image came to, so did Kailey's from behind me. She stood there, frowning angrily at me, her red dress evident against the green marbled stone of the fountain itself.

"Ahem." Kailey cleared her throat, spoke to me more gently, but repeated, "Octavius… what the hell?"

I stood up then, straightened myself out as best as I could, and struck another grin her way. I was dripping wet but I managed to negate this by my poise. "The glitter is gone though, right?"

"Not exactly." Her head turned as she looked behind her, catching sight of the group walking away then. "Anyway, please, we need to keep up."

She started walking away as I looked back into the fountain to double check her statement, realizing that while my plummet into the fountain had taken off a lot of the glitter, it didn't really get rid of all of it. My skin was too sticky to clean myself properly, so I had to settle with the idea that I was just going to be a shiny bard the rest of the day.

"Ummm, excuse me, Dr. Octavius Brine, right?" I heard someone say. So much had already occurred, but the sound of Brine being called—me being called by a stranger, made it too good to be true, so I obliged.

Turning around, a group of people were standing there, with their cameras out. They seemed happy to see me, despite how Kailey would eloquently put it: me looking like a mess.

"Yes, can I help you?" I asked.

"Can we get a picture with you? I can't believe you're here! And in costume! How fun!"

Ah, yes… more solicitation. More pictures meant more exposure to online formats, and that meant more people seeing me living life normally among them. Their beloved Octavius Brine, world renowned geneticists, mingling with the common folk at the Renaissance Festival.

"I'd love to oblige," I replied.

I extended my arms outward, a welcoming act as one person after another took pictures with me. Selfies, photographs… whatever, out in the wild of the internet to be eaten up by my fans. That meant more money for me and my plans. More funds to prepare in defense of another North Wind attack.

But the longer I took pictures, the more people lined up. Before I knew it the meager group that had been there before had grown into a fair sized crowd, again, each and every one of them wanting a picture. I had lost track of time attempting to catch up with the demand, and before I knew it the morning light had drifted, and had settled firmly in the middle of the sky by the time I had taken the last few final photographs, and bid farewell to my fans.

"Thank you for the picture," a small man in a cloak said; my last and final fan that had waited for a picture with me. He sat his camera in a bag, and turned his attention fully to me afterward. "It's not every day that an average person such as myself gets a photo of you this close."

"Yeah, I'm sure," I replied, still smiling—still full of the elation of being appreciated.

"Interesting how long you kept your head in that water," the guy commented again.

"Yeah, I guess," I replied. That was quite a while ago now, huh?

"And even more interesting how you manage to put your entire body in that human costume."

Okay, that was weird, but I kept nodding my head in agreement. "Anyway, good sir, I must be off to go find my lovely fiancée."

"That will not happen, you liar."

"What?" I was so confused. Wasn't I just literally having a good time? No red flags? "What are you talking about?"

The man tore the hood from his head, revealing himself. I didn't immediately recognize him, but the longer I stared, and the more he talked, things were coming back to me.

"I know you are an octopus, you fool! You absolute wretch! You ruined my restaurant! You made me lose customers! You made me have to pay for expensive hospital bill!"

"WHAT!?" I repeated, louder this time, prior confidence falling into shock. The tiny man. This tiny, horrible little man… he was….

"I AM CHEF HIROTO!"

"WHATTTTT?!"

Chef Hiroto. The sushi chef from Alaska was here—suddenly, without warning, like a horrible little venomous spider springing from the shadows and in front of my face. I had to blink a few times to try and comprehend that a person that I had run into months ago during that breakfast incident was right here in front of me, accusing me of being me: an octopus.

I felt stunned. I could only stand there, my smile having since faded, staring agape as the little man reached into his cloak and took out a knife. His teeth grit together as he angrily contemplated my presence in front of him.

"Reveal yourself, or I'll stab you, octopus!"

"Ayyy there, man! What do you think you are doing to this Lord Bard?" Another voice boomed from one of the little shops among us. This person had walked up from behind me; he was incredibly buff and hairy that for a moment I wasn't registering that he was wearing a wolf pelt over himself. "Sheathe your blade, or I shall report the to thy king!"

"What king? You are an idiot!" Hiroto hollered. "I am here because this liar is inhuman! He is an octopus! If he won't expose himself for the creature he is I will make him. I did not travel all this way to be told what to do!"

"How did you even find me?" I asked. If I could sweat I swear I would have then. I actually didn't believe this kind of thing would ever happen to me. I had even convinced Kailey that my secret would never be revealed, and yet…

"Word spreads fast where you are online," Hiroto replied. "I saw you in a selfie with some guy, who posted it Twitter. You were at a Thanksgiving dinner, and this user, WheatleyisKawaii27, said you were going with them to the Texas Renaissance Festival. So now I am here!" He waved his hand that was clutching the knife, making the large man in the wolf pelt next to me reach to his side, putting his palm against an actual _sword_.

"Sheathe your blade!" the man in the wolf pelt repeated. Suddenly the sound of iron scraping against leather screeched next to me. The next thing I knew the strangers sword was _actually_ pointing at Hiroto. "Hear what I say, you vile thing!"

"What in God's good name is going on this time?" The sound of an older woman's voice joined the incident I was in the middle of.

"Lady Patricia, there is a criminal in our midst! Call thy king and his guards!"

I blinked. Within that second, the incident would shift, but in a way I did not expect. Hiroto actually charged at me. He actually jumped forward with intent to _stab_ me. I couldn't believe my eyes as my world fell into slow motion, the high pitch cries of Chef Hiroto piercing my hearing much like the knife that was about to do the same to my squishy body. Would I survive this? Could I even defend myself? Sure, I could probably knock this guy out cold in one punch, but was I really willing to do that? In front of all these people? Their precious Dr. Octavius? Donor to NPR pledge drives?!

Before I even had to make that snap decision, the guy with the sword had stepped in front of me, tripped Hiroto, and as he fell, stomped his foot on the hand that clutched the knife. With Hiroto down, he reinforced himself by pointing his sword on the back of his head.

It felt like a long time standing there, staring at these two, but quickly I realized that security guards had them surrounded, and a fat man dressed like a king stood among them. I could only watch, agape, as they took Hiroto, cuffed him, and carried him off screaming.

"Ay, Lord Bard!" the man in the wolf's pelt cried, attempting to get my attention. "Art thou doing well?"

I continued to stare off at the human security guards and Hiroto until they disappeared through the entry gate, completely shaken by the series of events that just happened to me. I didn't understand how this could have happened! I mean, I guess I knew why it happened, but I would never think that out of all the human beings I'd accidentally let see my true form would actually peruse me so intently.

"Yes, I'm fine," I finally replied to the man. I slowly attempted to adjust myself, patting my head, adjusting my glasses—anything I could do, or felt like I could do to make sure that I was put together. "Thank you for helping me with that...errr, what is your name anyway?"

"You may call me Lord Ulfric Stormcloak," he replied proudly, sheathing his sword.

The woman from the back of the shop that had yelled at us earlier could be heard again, saying, "I thought you were Lord Gandalf Grey this year?"

"No, that was last year, ya old hag!" It looked like Ulfric was a little disheveled for a moment from the lady's outburst, but he soon picked himself back up, returning his attention to me. "I should be helping Lady Patricia with our shop, but I see that you are in need. Tell me, is there anything else I can help you with after that criminal attack?"

I looked around. It suddenly clicked that Kailey had not been here in a really long time. I had become so enamored by all the photographs and attention that I must've lost her in the process.

"I am looking for my fiancée," I finally said, trying to hide my distress.

"Ah, Lord Bard has a Lady!" The man smiled, chuckled to himself. "Can you tell me what she looks like? What she's wearing? Maybe I can help you find her."

"Umm… she's in a red dress. Long brown hair, elf ears… She's wearing a golden circlet…"

"Ah, forgive me Lord Bard!" the man's eyes widened. "I did not realize that your lady was a princess—an elven princess no less." He chuckled again, hitting my back harshly with his palm, which made me lose my breath for a moment from the impact practically shooting the air out of me. "I could not possibly allow you—a magnificent, regarded, talent bard—to be separated from your princess for any longer! Royalty needs their poets and singers, yes? The halls of a castle grow pale and dark without the light of epic tales and love songs."

"Well, yes," I replied, but I felt like I couldn't get out another peep still. The man smacked my back again, getting me to move along. It seemed I would be escorted by Ulfric the rest of the day, but due to my circumstances of getting, you know, lost and all I guess this was for the best. I often wondered if I should have a body guard anyway while I went out as Brine. It wasn't something I thought about before but after _that_ … well, maybe I should up my defenses, and not just against North Wind.

"I wonder why that petty scoundrel would have done this to you," Ulfric commented then. "You are a man of fine regard. How could that man think such a way as he had?"

I shrugged, trying to play it off casually. It seemed like despite Hiroto yelling that I was an octopus, this idea was lunacy to everyone else. Which was a good thing, of course! But still, I was on my 'toes'.

"I am unsure," I frowned softly for effect. "I don't understand, though. I give so much to this world and yet to find that someone would say such things…"

"Ay, man, I know how thou feels," Ulfric sighed. "For my profession I build the finest blades in fire, and yet in the outside world I cannot make much of myself."

"So you're a blacksmith?" I inquired.

"Ay! That I am," Ulfric said. "I am a man of the forage."

"Okay… but I'm sure there are things you can do in the outside world that can utilize your expertise."

"Nay! My skill is only for the sword. Weapons are my specialty, and nothing else..." He paused, sighed again. "Unfortunately, the world beyond is a world of guillotines and gnashing of teeth. You either become what they want and lose yourself in the process, or are an outcast—a failure."

I diverted my eyes for a moment, for some reason discomfort overwhelming me as I tried to wrap my mind around what he was saying. Eventually, I found that my discomfort became displaced with something of defense—justification. I imagined the outside world… the _humans_ , cheering me on, adoring me. As Brine, they loved me. As Dave the octopus… well, not so much. In one way I was seen and heard… loved. In the other I was forgotten and alone… hated. In my case, change was necessary. Not only necessary, but required.

"But changing is a good thing, right?" I asked, my eyes finally managing to quit its diversions and avoidance of the presence of this strange human, and to instead add to the conversation. "You change to better your life. Isn't that what everyone wants? Is a better life?"

"If it means giving up who I am? Nay," Ulfric replied. "What the outside world can do to a man… it's a maker of beasts, it is."

Again, my eyes diverted. I kept thinking, _what is this guy on?_ And yet, despite my ways of internalizing these thoughts in ways that blamed him, I couldn't help but also think that maybe he was onto something.

No! That doesn't matter. He happened to be born a blacksmith in an era that no longer required swords and shields, and no longer wanted to learn new skills, transform himself. That was his own fault. Right? Right.

. . . . . . .

We passed horses with men in armor riding them with spears. We passed booths of sweet and savory smells, shops of garments and shiny things. There were hundreds—thousands of characters, people in costume, but not one of them so far had been that of my dearest.

It had gotten to the point where we had made the entire circle of the festival grounds, back to where we started beside Ulfric's shop, and next to the fountain and the band to our left. They had just finished an old hymn, something I had never heard before, and were shuffling in silence as onlookers continued to gaze their direction.

My foot tapped the dirt and leaves as I again grew aware of how uncomfortable I was.

_Where was she? Where was Kailey?_

I should have stayed with her before. I shouldn't have let her out of my sight. She had warned me after all… she always warned me, but for some reason I never listened.

In a way to avoid my fear in the moment, I grabbed hold of the lute I had been carrying at my side, and strummed the strings. I casually started to pick at it, loosely playing the notes of a song that I had learned with Penny the night before. It helped keep my dread at bay, at least, and reminded me why I learned it to begin with. I wanted to play it for Kailey, but it looked like that would have to wait a while longer.

"Ah, is that the bards of Metallica?" Ulfric noted aloud in response to my strumming.

"What?" I asked, stopping my strumming.

"Metallica, the song you're playing. That is who singeth the melody."

I had no idea what Ulfric was talking about to be completely honest, but he must've recognized where the song I learned came from. I honestly just let Penny teach me whatever song she wanted for the lute the night prior, and this one happened to be it.

Ulfric's eyes opened wide, seemingly sparking with an idea as a smile swept across his expression. "Wait, why don't thee play on the stage with the band there? Maybe your Princess will hear you and come. Summon her from afar with your song."

"Ummm…" I murmured, but he had already grabbed my arm and started pulling me along. I watched as the crowd that once had their eyes looking solely at the preparing group on the stage look at me, soon I arriving at the stage with those preparing.

"You know who this is," Ulfric began. His bold introduction was loud to the other performers, adding to their already heightened awareness that I had just walked up to them. From the looks of their expressions, they knew exactly who I was, but continued to play along in their roles.

"Yeah we do," one of the men said. "He's Dr. Brine."

"You fool! Here he is a Lord Bard! Mind your manners!"

"Oh, we did not mean to offend," the same man replied, chuckling. "What is it we can do for him? Does he want a song request?"

"Of the sorts," Ulfric said. "He hath prepared a song in honor of his Princess. He is looking for her, but perhaps she will comes if she hears him sing."

The groups eyes widened like Ulfric's had done before, some gasping softly.

"What a beautiful idea!" the singer said. "We'd love to help."

Ulfric slapped my back again. "It's all you then, Bard. Play thy lute and sing, and the band will back you up."

I could only blink as Ulfric left the stage and stationed himself towards the back next to his shop, arms crossed as he watched the stage. Likewise, everyone in the crowd had their eyes on me too, and for a moment it enticed me to start playing. But as I thought of this gesture longer, the more that weird feeling of dread returned. It wasn't like I couldn't do this, or even that I didn't want to. I loved to perform, but this time it felt odd. Strange, especially after what Ulfric had told me.

From the back Ulfric gave me a thumbs up. That seemed to be a steering point of my train of thought, and instead of thinking I was to play for solely this crowd here, I reminded myself that the idea was to play for Kailey. She was out there, somewhere.

I strummed the lute again, settling myself in the gist of things, then slowly started to play.

At first, the song of my lute was alone. Silence seemed to overtake the crowd as they listened; even the busy beyond seemingly quieting down as the realization that it was me up on the stage playing.

I joined the lute with my voice, the soft shimmering sound of one of the performers with a tambourine gently vibrating the instrument behind me.

_"So close, no matter how far._

_Couldn't be much more from the heart;_

_Forever trusting who we are,_

_And nothing else matters."_

Another performer with a drum in his hands started tapping it with his palm, adding again to the song.

_"Never opened myself this way;_

_Life is ours, we live it our way._

_All these words I don't just say._

_And nothing else matters."_

As I sung I kept my eyes peered beyond the crowd. Searching, wondering. Guilt didn't seem to leave me even then as I looked.

How could I have been so careless? Things had always gone so well that I hadn't thought of anything quite like this happening before. How could it? I was Dave! I was always prepared. And yet, it did. It did happen. I suppose years of revenge and planning for my evil deeds finally in one way or another came to backstab me. Almost literally. But even now that things had calmed down, I was still going through my prior actions consequences.

The further into the song I went, the more I tried to send my voice outward. I never particularly thought of myself as the best of singers, but I suppose it was good enough to then cause the crowd to start cheering as they listened. The rest of the performers behind me had all collectively began to add their own instruments and voices into the song with me, making us a spectacle that I felt was very much needed at this time.

Again, I continued to look outward, hoping that at any second I would see her coming up towards me. And yet, for a while longer, time continued to pass without her presence.

But it was only for a while, I suppose…

I saw her slowly come from beyond the crowd, finally. She had managed to come up to the front of the stage, looking up at me with that mixture of concern and irritation that she always seemed to carry, but through it I could see that same relief I was feeling, too.

Without being promoted, I stepped off the stage, continuing to play even as I left that spotlight with the other performers, meeting her on the ground, not helping then to sing directly to her, from that point ignoring everyone else that watched and listened.

Kailey's face changed in all sorts of different ways, but I didn't care. Angry, happy, sad… it was all her in the end.

I had plucked the last chord on the lute when the song ended, sending the crowd into another loud uproar of cheers. Some of their cameras were flashing, but this time it didn't seemed to faze me.

"So you're telling me you learned to play the lute in a single night?" Kailey asked.

"Yes," I replied, smiling for her. It was amusing watching her face change around again; processing everything I suppose.

"Don't leave me again, okay?" she said softly. "I was worried you had run off... or got into trouble."

"Oh, I did, not gonna lie there," I responded.

"What?"

"Well, you see, I was taking a lot of pictures with my fans, and it took a bit longer than I thought. Eventually I posed for a picture with this one guy, who happened to be Chef Hiroto, and he tried to stab me and all."

"What!?"

"But it's okay! I had some help form a hairy man that wears the skin of my enemies, so all is well!" I shivered for a brief moment, thinking about the dead wolf skin he wore. Ewww.

"You almost got stabbed!?"

" _Almost_ , dearest!" I put a hand on her shoulder, attempting to console her. "Everything took care of itself. We will never, ever hear from Hiroto again, I'll have you know. I watched him get taken away by the king and some security guards!"

She stared at me, her mouth agape. I don't think what I had to say was really helping her, but I figured over time she'd understand that everything was fine now. I was just so glad she was here again!

I promised myself that I would try harder though. Some things were more important, after all, than fans and plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Dave sung Metallica, ren fest style lol. Penny is a metalhead. 
> 
> For my readers reference, the song is called "Nothing Else Matters"


	9. A Nightmare's Reflection

_"You almost got stabbed!?"_

My own words seemed to echo in my mind. The feeling I had when I said them was still felt hours after I had uttered them. The feeling of being stunned—stupefied. I felt at a loss as to what I was supposed to do next, and that feeling of shock would soon merge into another feeling I continued to carry even that night when I fell asleep.

My eyes were closed, and I knew I was lying in my bed, but you could say I wasn't really _there_. I was adrift, held stationary above an endless blackness, listening, waiting… paralyzed.

_"Almost, dearest! Everything took care of itself. We will never, ever hear from Hiroto again…"_

Dave's words came next, like a passing thing, and then drifted away, being smothered by the dark around me. I felt my heart start to race once his voice left, as if his coming and going had somehow reminded me of my current presence in the weird, dreamless void.

For a while, things remained this way. That was, until I heard a _whooshing_ sound, like waves, or collective crackles of electricity getting louder and louder as the seconds passed, intensifying.

I still couldn't open my eyes, but I _felt_ something. Dread filled my body, and for a moment an uncontrollable need to sob attempted to push itself out, but with all my might I held it back as to not draw attention to myself, just in case whatever was in the dark with me would notice.

I listened. First it was nothing at all, but soon I could hear more utterances of things I had heard before. Some were words that Rayonna had said. Some were things my family had mentioned during Thanksgiving dinner. More so were things that strangers would say about Dave and I.

While they were not necessarily whispers of something bad, I still felt stiff, no longer in a way that indicated that I was paralyzed from sleep, but because I _wanted_ to be _. I could not move_. I wouldn't move or they'd see me.

Soon the voices shifted and grew a bit louder. They sounded frustrated, but soon it was as if all the voices began to converse with one another instead. Once that happened, that presence in the dark with me grew angry.

My heart beat faster more so then, and though my paralyzed limbs I felt a sense of cold running through me.

_"Liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar…."_

The chant was all around me, but as time passed the collective voices would focus at a single point in front of me. At this moment it was almost impossible for me to lay there any longer, and with all my might I winced, opening my eyes then as I gazed into my dark room.

But looking in front of me, right there peering from the dark, were spears, pitchforks, and the barrel of a riffle, pointing at me, as real as it would be in the daylight. Behind them were shadows and figures, no eyes, no faces… just _things_.

 _"Monster..."_ they muttered.

I tensed the muscles in my right arm, and with a quick force of will, swiped my hand across the things in front of me in a desperate attempt to push them away.

As my hand crossed the air in front of me, and like the blink of an eye, everything that had been standing in my room and hovered over me, had vanished.

Desperately my eyes scanned the bed around me, seeing my cat Kiki lying to my side. She hadn't noticed or maybe even cared that I had moved my arm in my sleep.

I lowered my raised hand gently onto her back, the feeling of her soft fur a reassurance to me that I was in reality.

Despite anchoring myself in this way, the dread that I had felt in my bad dream still remained. I realized that going straight back to sleep in this current mindset was a horrible idea, to put it frankly, and I got out of bed, walked across the room to the bathroom, and turned on the lights.

The large mirror there became a focal point against my will, and it took a mental fight of the sorts to decide whether I was to look into it or not. I had this weird idea that you shouldn't look into mirrors at night, and more so now that I was still disturbed by what my sub-consciousness had just put me through.

Despite my strange internal struggle, I looked up anyway. Luckily, I just saw me in there, although logically I knew that was all I'd see, but dread was getting the better of me.

Briefly my eyes scanned my surroundings through the mirror. The walls were painted a light forest green, but behind me, and right next to the doorway I had come from, was a red picture frame hung on the wall.

Upon closer inspection, I realized it was my graduation picture.

I looked so happy there. Everything was new, and my future looked so bright. Hard work and perseverance seemed to have paid off. All the struggling, the building of character, and whatnot. Sometimes I realized that who I was today was not so much as who I had been when I started that degree, let alone who stood in that picture.

My eyes darted from the photo of myself behind me in my graduation gown, and to me, the real me then and there, looking back at myself in the mirror. My hair was a mess from having just woken up, and there were slight dark circles under my eyes, probably because of the night of bad dreaming.

I looked back at my portrait in the red picture frame, then back at my reflection again. I pursed my lips. _Maybe right now wasn't the time to compare_ , I thought.

I proceeded to do my business, and then wash my hands and face afterward, but even after that I still couldn't find it in me to get back into bed. So instead, I clicked the lights in the bathroom off, walked back into the room, grabbed my phone, and left my room completely to venture downstairs. Soon finding my way to the living room, there I took comfort on the couch, wrapping myself in a blanket next to a basket under the coffee table.

I clicked my phone on, and began to scroll. Ironically, the first news that hit my dash was photographs of Dave as Octavius Brine at the Texas Renaissance Festival, each photo and each selfie captioned with giddy words of fans meeting their famous geneticist.

While I did not run into a single photo or article talking about anything else that happened, I was reminded regardless about the incident with Hiroto…

 _He had tried to kill Dave._ Not just kill even _, murder him_. Outright _stab_ him in front of all those people.

The following conversation that had already happened seemed to flood my already disturbed state of mind.

 _"Dave…"_ I had whispered out of concern, but after I said his name, his real name, my voice had heightened again, growing loud like it had been before. _"Why, is Hiroto here and why is he trying to stab you!?"_

 _"Well…"_ Dave began, drawing a bit closer to me as to make his voice into a whisper this time. _"You see… he kinda sorta knows I'm an octopus."_

 _"HOW!?"_ I gasped, again loudly.

 _"It's funny you ask, because thinking about it I'm fairly certain that I saw this coming. You warned me about it, a few days ago."_ He chuckled awkwardly. _"So he uses the internet a lot, and—"_

_"Are you telling me you think he's the one that made that post online? The one I showed you where you're—"_

_"Yes, exactly that one!"_ Dave said, his smile remaining on his face, although for the life of me I couldn't understand how he could smile in a situation like this. _"He knows I'm an O, C, T—"_

 _"Don't speak,"_ I had hissed sternly, flailing my hands in the air beside us. I was aghast. Absolutely horrified _. "Don't say anything else right now!"_ I turned away from him quickly to try and walk away, but instead seeing the mass crowd staring at us, cheering, clapping, pictures flashing and all. I couldn't stand it.

I turned back to Dave instead. _"We need to get out of here, now_ ," I said. I felt my face turn red then, my face hot from not only the Texas warmth in the freaking fall, but then because of the realization that I wasn't even allowed to freak out. I couldn't freak out _in front of all those people_.

My mind skipped around some, leaving that moment at the Renaissance Festival, and the conversation I had had with Dave. My next train of thought spat images at me of the events that occurred when we all had come home next. My parents had asked me questions why we had come home so early, but also how our day was…

And you know what I had to tell them?

 _"Everything was great!"_ I had said, forcing giddiness in my tone like it was an easy thing, but behind the façade it was all a lie. It was fake.

_I was fake._

In the dark living room, with only the light of my phone bringing a faint glow to the room, I suddenly heard footsteps coming down the stairs. For a moment my heart skipped, my mental state a literal mess if you couldn't already tell, and waited in anticipation for whoever it was to show themselves as they made their way down the staircase.

A dark figure finally revealed itself, then uttered quietly, "Kailey, what are you doing down here in the middle of the night?"

Relief momentarily steadied my heart. It was Mom.

"I couldn't sleep," I replied, putting my phone down.

There was a long pause as she made her way beside the couch. "You're having bad dreams again, aren't you?" she asked. "Hmmm… you've always had these."

"Why do you think Leah always made fun of me to go to a sleep clinic?" I said cynically. "I hate this."

"I know," Mom said, finally sitting down next to me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

My teeth grit together as I grimaced in silence. I was actually glad it was dark; she couldn't see me. "Not really," I lied. It was a big lie. A huge lie that went against who I was. Of course I wanted to tell her. I always told her my dreams, good or bad, but how was I supposed to explain to her that I saw pitchforks and gun barrels pointed at me and people chanting, "liar, monster," going to settle?

"That bad, huh?" She sighed.

I felt my lips quiver. It was like I was a cup overflowing; I needed to tell her _something_.

"I saw things in my room," I finally said aloud. "They were right there, at the end of the bed, pointing objects in my face, like spears, and guns…"

"Kailey, I'm so sorry," she said worriedly, and put a hand on my shoulder, easing her way closer to me to finally take me into a warm embrace. "I hate it when this happens to you, too. Are you going to sleep on the couch?"

"I think I will," I replied.

"It's okay if you need to." She squeezed me tighter in her hug before letting me go. "Do you want to talk about anything?"

"No," I said hesitantly. I felt like she may have heard the hesitation this time, but she gave me distance anyway.

"Well, okay then," she said. "I'm going to go lay back down. I'll pray for you when I get there, Kailey. I love you."

"I love you, too," I said.

I clutched my blanket as I listened to her walk back up the wooden staircase.

. . . . . . .

I had fallen asleep at some point, but at what point, I had no idea. I only woke up when I heard Mom and Dad come down the stairs, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee hitting my nose soon after. Dad began to speak when he noticed I was on the couch; this caused me to stiffen, though, which did the trick of stripping away what sleepiness I had left.

"What is she doing down here?" he asked.

"Don't bother her, Darren, she had a bad night," Mom replied in my defense.

Dad grumbled.

At that point I felt compelled to sit up, wiping some crust off of my eyes before I finally got a look at them standing there. I noticed they were dressed to go out somewhere.

"Where are you going?" I asked. "Don't you want to have coffee with me?"

"We do!" Mom said. "We set it to brew, and the kettle will keep it warm for a bit. We were just going to stop by the store and pick up a few things. Since you and Octavius are staying we wanted to make sure the house was stocked with enough food."

"Don't you think we have enough leftovers from Thanksgiving for that?" I asked.

"No, your father had the bright idea to give most of it away to the family," Mom said, and tapped her foot once on the floor.

Dad looked at her, raising a brow. "Oh, so I did something wrong then, huh?" His bitchiness was coming out a little now, but that was to be expected now that everyone was gone, and Dave was out of sight for now.

"I'm not saying anything, Darren, I'm just implying that maybe we should start keeping some leftovers for ourselves, considering Kailey is staying with us." Mom turned to head down the hallway, both literally and metaphorically walking away from the conversation. "Anyway, Darren, let's go." She shifted her attention to me after that, and said, "We'll be back shortly, Kailey!"

"Okay…" I muttered. I listened again as they walked down the hall, opened the door, and then shut it with a clank. The wreath that hung on the other side tapped the door a few times after it shut.

Then silence returned.

I sat up and stretched my arms and legs before I started roaming the downstairs of the house. It was still taking some getting used to, realizing this place was my parents' new house and all. I started trying to think of all the different things about it in comparison to my folk's old place, and even more so how it differed from the little house that I had lived in with Leah for a time before I met Dave.

 _So much to explore_ , I thought. I felt like a little kid as I traced my hand across the wooden walls as I walked, and looked up at the high arch ceilings of the dining room, and the brightness of the kitchen as I made my way to that next. I finally made it to the backdoor, opening it slowly to take a look at what the yard looked like.

The sound of morning birds welcomed me as I stepped outside. It wasn't quite as warm as it was yesterday; it was actually quite pleasant, which surprised me a tad, but I had to remind myself that Texas, particularly Houston weather, could be rainy and cool one day and sunny and hot the next, so this shouldn't have been much of a surprise to me as I had been thinking, to be honest. Being away from home as long as I had been though, you forget to remember, I guess.

A soft breeze passed through the tall oak trees above me, causing a few leaves to fall, bringing my eyes down to a pool where water softly patted against the edges. I felt my eyes widen as I beheld this, a soft smile creeping across my lips as my brain registered that my family finally had a freaking pool.

"Oh, wow," I muttered. I could have only dreamed of having a backyard like this. Spending almost my whole life living in a little house, and briefly into another smaller house, my world had been pretty small.

That was… until I met Dave.

I stood there in contemplation a bit longer, turning my head up to look at the tall oak trees towering above me. The canvas was mostly green, for the exception of a few spots of yellows, and oranges… fall colors and all. Another soft breeze swept through, plucking a few of the leaves from their spots, and caused them to tumble to the ground. I watched in particular as another red leaf fell in front of me, and landed in the blue water, causing a tiny ripple to grow and spread, and end at the edge of the pool where my feet stood.

I bent down to watch the ripple, closely inspecting the little details of the red leaf floating against the water too, and the reflection of both of the tall green trees behind me, and myself looking down at it.

As the ripples cleared and I could fully see my face staring back at me, I also took notice of someone else standing there behind my own reflection. I had to keep myself from being startled as I turned my head around quickly.

It was Dave, _out of his disguise_.

"What do you think you're doing!?" I gasped, bringing myself to a stand as I turned to face him. It took me a moment, but I noticed he had two large squirt guns in his tentacles, a sort of casual expression being maintained as he responded to me nonchalantly.

"Oh, I heard your folks were going out, so I thought I'd just relax and not worry about being Brine right now," he said, his eyes drifting away momentarily. His eyes shot back my direction almost an instant later. "I also happened to find these in the garage."

"It's fall," I said in a-matter-of-fact tone.

"So? It's still like 70 degrees out here anyway," Dave replied. He extended one of the water guns out to me, although I was completely hesitant to take it.

"I literally just woke up," I said.

"Okay, what's your point? You don't want to get wet? People take morning showers all the time."

"You know I take night showers, you dumby," I said.

He still seemed pretty stern about this though, the water gun still hovering in between us despite my protesting.

"Ugh, fine!" I gave in, taking the toy from him in a snap decision. "You can't do this for long; my parents will be back shortly."

Honestly, I don't even remember the details of what happened next. Point A to point B seemed like a blur, but the next thing I knew, _duh_ , I got drenched. Why on earth did I let this happen? I can't even explain it to myself. On one hand, Dave had a way of getting me to do what he wanted, but on the other, he had a way of distracting me from my problems. Prior thoughts of Dave being out of his disguise, my contemplation of my presence in this new house, even lingering worries from the night before, seemed to melt into the background. All I could think of then and there was how to wreck his ass in this squirt gun war.

"You've got to do better than that, dearest!" Dave chimed, having since made his way to the other side of the pool. "Water is my element you know! In this case, I have the metaphorical high ground!"

"You underestimate my power!" I hollered back at him. I chuckled under my breath, humoring myself at my response, not knowing if he really understood I was making a Star Wars reference or not.

I stepped forward in a quick decision to start running around the pool to catch him, when I heard the sound of the backdoor creak open. Because of this, I slipped. The next thing I knew, I was in the pool, night shirt and all.

"Kailey!" I heard my mom gasp as I came up from out of the water. Once I broke the surface and rubbed my eyes so I could see clearly, I took notice of the little red leaf from before on top of the little rippling waves in front of me. I awkwardly then turned to look at my mother, who was looking at me with confusion from the door. "Kailey, why are you in the pool?"

"Ummm…" I murmured, my heart skipping a beat as my eyes diverted around to the other side of the pool, looking for Dave. To my relief, he had vanished. _Mom hadn't seen him_. "I was looking around, and I tripped," I explained aloud.

"Oh no!" Mom responded. "I'll go get you a towel. Just hold on a sec."

The door creaked again when she shut it behind her. At that moment my expression twisted, my eyebrows furrowing as hard as I could as I looked around the pool for Dave, both out of frustration, and a way to focus my gaze through little droplets that continued to trickle from my hair, and over my lashes.

"You—where are you!?" I spoke loudly, at least loudly enough to where I considered my voice was quelled to not draw attention from my parents in the house. I waited in silence for a moment as I listened carefully.

"Here," Dave whispered from directly behind me, submerged in the water along with me and the little leaf that failed to leave my side.

I flailed my arms in the air uncontrollably, stirring the water again. "AHHH!" I screamed. "Do not ever do that!"

"Sorry," Dave replied. "That was a pretty smooth evasion, if I do say so myself. You didn't even see where I was, did you? Not even your mother caught a glimpse of me even being out here."

I huffed, whipping my face down again. "I suggest you continue to evade my parents and get the hell back upstairs. This was a terrible idea, what if they saw you?"

"They didn't though."

"But what _if_ ," I repeated, emphasizing my _fffff_ sound at the end. I knew better than to get into it with him right now, especially in the middle of the pool, with my mother bound to return at any second.

And like clockwork, the door creaked again. My eyes widened as I continued to stare at Dave, realizing that in a mere few seconds, my mom would see an actual large purple octopus swimming in the pool with me.

I felt like I was in a literal dream though when Dave actually just… freaking VANISHED before my eyes. Like, my brain literally could not comprehend with all the shit happening in that instant, that Dave just removed himself from the situation.

"Kailey, I have your towel. Why are you still in the pool, come out of there!" Mom said, having stepped into the yard by then.

I briefly did a double take towards the direction Dave had vanished, but quickly focused my attention on my mother, and getting out of the water for that matter.

. . . . . . .

The entire day had been one of the most normal days I had experienced in a long time. I mean, minus the fact that we had an octopus in disguise among us, my parents, Dave and I, just chilled around the house, watching TV, chatting about the family's latest shenanigans, and whatnot.

We were all sitting together in the living room, the television already playing Christmas movies, when my Dad had started talking about work. He was pretty into it with Dave, I guess because Octavius was a 'man' and all. Ha!

"My recent boss was one of the biggest pieces of shit assholes I've ever had to work with," Dad said bitterly. "I can imagine having your own business, not having to work for someone else, is the dream. Not to mention you are working for a cause, so your livelihood itself hits all the marks."

"Well… yes," Dave responded casually. "With the kind of work I do, with my credentials and knowledge and all, I've never had to work for anyone." He paused a moment, thinking over his response I suppose, then said, "Well, after I finished my PhD of course. As a student I was very much at the mercy of those helping me with my degree, but it got to a point where even they respected me."

"Never could finish college," Dad said. "That's why I pushed Kailey so hard to get her schooling done."

"Darren works for himself now though," my mom added to the conversation. "After he got fired from that last job with that bad boss, I kept encouraging him to start his own business. We're doing fine."

"Not as fine as you think," Dad said, dismissing Mom's positivity. "We had been barely getting by. Competition in my line of work is hard. To tell you the truth, if it wasn't for your charity, Octavius, I don't think we would have ever gotten out of debt, let alone been able to afford such a nice house like this."

"It was my pleasure, as always to help my family," Dave answered, nodding to himself as he gave himself a silent pat on the back. "I had been making so much money I had to invest a bit for someone I cared for…"

"Can't believe you're able to save that much money for yourself to use freely," Dad said.

As I listened to all this talking about work, and education, and money, I felt myself cringe inside. Sure Dave had had a fair amount of money a few months ago. But now? Poof. Gone. After North Wind invaded all of Dave's establishments, Octo Corp, his island, and submarine and all, they took everything, as I've emphasized hundreds of times by now.

Truth be told, I had no idea how we were going to come out of this. Relying on 'charity' got unfortunately easier recently because of that. It had been easy before, but _I_ was even justifying it… But even through my justifications I always felt that pang of wrongness. Listening to my father talk to Dave like this just made it even worse.

The TV cut its showing of Christmas movies to a commercial, again showing another one of Rayonna's beauty products ads. Again, the images of fresh skinned women putting on makeup, anti-wrinkle creams and such, made me roll my eyes. I eventually found that I had placed the tips of my fingers on my cheek as I watched, feeling around for pimples or dents in my completion. I had to immediately retract this from occurring any longer once I realized what I was doing, turning my head to look elsewhere again to distract myself.

"Oh, you interviewed with this lady?" my mom inquired then. Not having a clue where she could have gotten that fact from, I turned my attention back towards our circle among the living room, my eyes settling back on the TV, unfortunately. I just realized that the commercial had ended, and another advertising skit of our local news station was showing a teaser of Rayonna talking about us, as in _me and Dave_.

_"Tune in for live coverage of Rayonna Desiree from New York City, with her recent must-read article being published this December highlighting Dr. Octavius Brine, his work to help the world's penguins, and stories of his love life with his fiancée. Possible hints of a wedding finally coming soon?"_

_Are you kidding me_ , I thought. It was one thing talking about Brine's fake ass research and stupidity with 'saving the penguins', but she had to add our personal lives to the mix, didn't she?

"What did you tell this reporter?" my mom asked then.

"We agreed to interview her about Octavius's work and ongoing research," I answered, not able to help myself from sneering. "She had started asking us about personal things, but looks like she's going to run with the miniscule details we talked about."

Mom sighed. "I guess that's popularity for you."

"Wish it wasn't," I grumbled. I watched as the brief news skit shifted topics.

_"Also, have there really been UFO sightings? Are these pranks, or serious photographs? An expert gives their opinion on recent events in the American northwest, where locals claim aliens are among us."_

"Hmmm," I heard my mom mumble that time. "So many weird things going on, aren't there?"

"More bullshit probably," Dad responded. "Just what we need is more crap. What do you think of all that nonsense, Octavius?"

"To be honest I just heard about this only recently as well. I'm not sure what to make of it either," Dave admitted. "I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about. If there was anything going on, the government would tell us." He chuckled to himself. "And with my renown in genetics, I'd be the first to find out!"

That time, I _really_ rolled my eyes. Luckily my parents and Dave were too preoccupied discussing this, among various topics that evening that my display of continued cringe wasn't noticed.

. . . . . . .

Thanksgiving Thursday, Renaissance on Friday, and our casual Saturday were finally mere memories come Sunday morning. Normally I'd hate the idea of leaving my parents again, but this trip made me anxious to get out of there and head back to New York. With all the stuff going on, again, Dave almost being stabbed, and me having to keep it to myself, wasn't helping _at all_.

My world felt like constant blur, and like a ghost I continued moving wherever the flow took me. Finding myself back in the jet with Dave, Penny and Kenny, like waking up from another dream, just made it all feel worse. I almost wanted to feel a tinge of guilt for losing my presence with everyone, but what else could I do?

We had taken off and began our flight back to the Big Apple when things got quiet again. Hearing the subtle hum of the jets engines—white noise—made me want to dissociate again. It was the only alternative I had other than overthinking things, which even my fast moving mind was getting fatigued of.

"I had so much fun this weekend!" Dave exclaimed suddenly, causing me to jump in my seat.

"I'm glad…" I replied softly, looking out the window. There was a brief passing moment of discomfort when I did this, seeing nothing but blue above me, and grey clouds below me though that small window, but for some reason it wasn't enough to retract me again. It was like I couldn't stop looking out the window into the deep, big blue, soon the endless blue sky upward and beyond mirroring an image in my mind like the water in the pool.

"Kailey, is everything all right?" Dave asked then, his chipper tone having shifted to something of concern. He turned to look at me, placing a gloved 'hand' over mine, which sat on the armrest between us.

His touch caused me to finally blink.

"I just… have a lot on my mind right now," I answered quietly.

"Like what? Like Hiroto or something?" Dave chuckled; I wasn't sure if it was a chuckle that was making fun of his own prior predicament, a way to downgrade its seriousness or just a general attempt to help me again, but I still prepared myself for another one of his bullshit 'don't worry statements'.

With that anticipation, I answered before he could continue. "Yes, Dave… Hiroto definitely trying to stab you is very much on my mind right now." I slowly turned my head his way, looking at him seriously, attempting desperately to send him every signal I could that I was NOT OKAY with that.

"Kailey, I told you, you don't—"

"—Have to worry, I know!" I raised my voice, but after my exhale of irritation, I caught myself again. It was taking every ounce of me to keep the monster in the cage, if that was a way to put it.

Dave raised a brow. His eyes scanned my face as he read me. Surprised or what, it must've really, truly been dawning on him how serious I was taking this. I just hoped he'd actually talk with me about it instead of pretending everything was okay. Yes, of course it was possible we'd never hear or see from Hiroto again (he had been arrested by those security guards working at the festival), but in the end, that didn't matter.

We were teetering on the edge, and a human being finding out about Dave's identity was our warning.

Warnings… flashing lights… I must've had another one of my dissociative time skips, because the lights in the jet were going off, and a siren was blaring on the speakers. There was a break in this wail when Penny started gargling on the intercom.

Dave gasped. He hadn't gasped in a long time like that. "We've got company!" was all he said before he sat up from his seat next to me, and rushed up the short lane of seats to arrive at the cockpit where Penny and Kenny were.

About to shit myself at that point, I looked back out the window. I stared as hard as I could, into the blue sky, and into the grey clouds beneath, but I couldn't see a thing. I opted to go after Dave by then; confusion adding to the mix, along with my anxiety.

"What the hell is going on now!?" I yelled.

Penny started garbling something else, Kenny at her side working the controls. Looking out the windshield in front of us, I didn't see anything out there either.

"The jet is picking up another aircraft signal," Dave said. "Right on top of us!"

"What!?" I leaned up as closely to the cockpit as I could, trying to look again out of the windshield, but still saw nothing. "Are you sure it's not just a hiccup?"

Penny gurgled and garbled back at me, arguing at me. I certainly couldn't speak octopus, but I knew she was serious.

_There was something above us._

"Do we have turrets or something!?" I fussed.

"This is a transport jet, dearest," Dave said worriedly. "We don't even have those anymore or else I would have chosen one for our flight."

"Shit!" I yelled, panic resuming when my only attempt at being tactical failed. I rushed out of the cockpit, looking through all the windows. One by one, left from right, I peered through each one as I went, not seeing a thing outside.

That was until I got to the center window on the left.

An ordinary sight of the jet's wing was the first thing I saw before that normal view of mine was decimated by the addition of a gigantic metal claw-thing phasing into existence, which then clamped down on the side of the jet. It must've been a clamp that happened on the other side of the jet too, cause once that thing came down the jet shuttered, side to side, and the engines started roaring when it had once been a hum.

"Dave!" I hollered, tripping as I pulled myself from the window, and prepared myself to try run back toward the cockpit. "DAVE, OH MY GOD!"

Before I could even begin my sprint, however, gravity shifted just when the jet engines shut off. The engines of our freaking airplane actually turned off, and like the feeling you get in an elevator mixed with putting the brakes on a car moving forward, we stopped.

My heart skipped then once I realized, or thought I realized, what was about to happen. But when we didn't start falling, my fears got even worse. It was one thing falling to my death of course—even though that was a pretty terrifying thing—but things were starting to click now, as scattered as I was.

An invisible intruder? A weird, science fiction claw-thing phasing into existence? It could only mean one thing!

"THEY'RE E THE CRYPTID ASS, SHIP FLYING BITCH ALIENS!" I screamed. I felt like my eyes were going to fall out of my face they must've been bulging out so far.

The claw things at both sides of the jet made their next move. I started to hear metal creaking and breaking, the screaming of the sides of the jet popping inward as the force of whatever this was broke through. Appearing through the torn purple metal was an entryway.

I could only listen as multiple sets of footsteps grew louder and louder, making their way from the dark ports on either side of me.


End file.
